There's one difference though - things just don't get sticky here in Mesa when you have the same group of people and friends-in-high places acting as a monopoly in almost everything including government and politics, the media, finance, insurance and real estate in multiple jurisdictions.
They've run the show for generations. The public doesn't care, getting effectively un-engaged and not involved.
Much too frequently, entrenched corruption has a self-perpetuating life of its own for the chosen few with the right friends-and-family affiliations.
Add religion to the mix and the faithful benefit.
Now remember that the City of Mesa formed an Ad Hoc Downtown Vision Committee whose members were nominated by Mayor John Giles to create a vision for the transformation of downtown. What we got instead are unsolicited developer proposals.
HERE'S A FEW CLUES THAT MIGHT MAKE THIS TWICE-TOLD TALE LOCAL
Reference Points: Site 17, Brown & Brown Chevrolet/Auto Nation, Community Facilities Districts, Bogus ASU Satellite Campus in 2016 General Election, Southwest RDA + Expansion into Central Business District + GPLETS, Recent MOUs and IGAs with Unsolicited Developer Proposals, Innovation Districts and Opportunity Zones, Land Annexations by The City of Mesa
1. A rich developer comes to town willing to spend millions to revitalize downtown as the city ached to rebrand itself as a place open for business, spinning his grand plans to redevelop under-used blocks of land in the shadow of a major existing asset.
2. He met with local city officials, hot-shot developers, burgeoning ranks of up-and-coming entrepreneurs all the time wooing the town’s politicians over lunches and dinners.
3. He got into what appears to be a massive, multi-year investigation of local politicians, their friends and millions of dollars in taxpayer redevelopment money. In the crosshairs may be some of the state's most ambitious political climbers, including its mayor, who has his sights set on the Governor’s Mansion.
4. Whispers of corruption - and 'Crony-Capitalism' and 'The Old Boys' Network - are commonplace in the one-degree-of-separation governments in between adjoining cities and towns, teeming with the loyal faithful, lobbyists and public relations firms, academic professors and political sophisticates, where local officials can barely keep an arms-length from those who seek to influence them. Over the years, rumored FBI investigations have come and gone without any charges.
5. Public corruption is the FBI’s chief criminal investigative priority and is something it does very well; they've got the money, resources and agents to do it and the people who understand the crime. Local governments are more vulnerable to corruption, because there are fewer eyes watching. Payments typically don’t need to go through the same approval process required at the state and federal level.
6. Really corrupt politicians deal in straight cash, but many others are willing to sell votes or other government services for surprisingly little money, and can involve city contracts, jobs, campaign contributions,appointments to boards and commissions that approve actions and membership in the Chamber of Commerce.
7. One boots-on-the-ground FBI tactic > Undercover agents are taught to ask questions and present problems for suspects to solve. The developer wanted to build outside the local redevelopment zone - who could help him get the boundaries expanded?
8. Many liaisons were facilitated by a local lobbyist, as well as others with county and city officials . . . Following years of meetings and input from government planners, the FBI sting operation got what it wanted - the redevelopment agency, made up of members of both the city and the county commissions, voted on an in-the-works plan to expand - as it happened, incorporating the land he sought to develop.
9. Some of most prominent politicians the city has ever produced are the most likely to feel political ramifications of the FBI investigation.
10. Many targets of the FBI Sting: people and companies that have been ethical thorns, campaign managers and treasurers, friends and family who reaped financial windfalls getting millions in public money to redevelop old city buildings, and groups of mostly-secret private investors mixing business, politics and friendship.
The city was accustomed to talk of the feds coming to town. Both the former mayor and school superintendent were investigated by the FBI in recent years. Nothing came of either case. . . .But in a town where cozy relationships and intertwined business interests have long fueled corruption conspiracy theories, the wide scope of the latest probe suggests it’s not a matter of if, but when charges will come down. > He turned out-to-be an FBI agent who had a 25-member staff including undercover agents, intelligence analysts, an airplane, covert vehicles, surveillance equipment and investigative techniques
________________________________________________________________________
FBI agents went undercover in Florida's capital for the 'biggest investigation in years'
by Sean Rossman Published 4:31 p.m. ET Aug. 14, 2017 |
_________________________________________________________________________
However, 'business-as-usual' in another city got disrupted
No comments:
Post a Comment