Rules Or Not, Legislators in Many States Can Push Bills They’d Profit From . . .

Let's get right to it: Now who do you think this might be fair warning for elected and salaried officials here for what's called frequently called "The Mesa Way" ???????

Read this first:

Legislators in Many States Can Push Bills They’d Profit From

The laws vary by state. In some, lawmakers are told to recuse themselves from votes that could create even the “appearance of impropriety.” In others, overlapping interests are seen as “almost inevitable.”

by Decca Muldowney June 7, 4:59 a.m. EDT

Please note: As stated in the introduction: This article was produced in partnership with The Advocate, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.

Your MesaZona blogger claims no credit or connection, direct or indirect, to either source for the publication of this report.
It's information that  you, dear reader, can use. That is the only intended purpose of this post for your interest.           

"It’s a fundamental part of representative government in democracies:
Politicians are elected to advocate for their constituents, and not their own interests.
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Now how did that work when a mayor named Brown somehow managed to nail-down agreements with the city council for all kinds of good deals for himself and his personal business interests worth thousands of dollars in 'concessions' and 'incentives' for a 10-acre site sales-and-service car lot right - with rows and rows of cars all lined up on Main Street half-a-block away from the International Design Award-winning Mesa Arts Center, smack dab in the middle of downtown. Brown & Brown Chevrolet and Auto Nation were relics and hold-overs in the urban cityscape from the bygone post-war era that drove out the central business district to suburbia  . . Did anyone take the time to speak up about cozy deals made at that time with city officials or any kind of questionable conduct?

Except for a huge sign on the showroom office windows that read "Thank you Mesa for 85 great years!" nothing remains of that bit of downtown history - the entire site of Auto Nation and Brown & Brown got demolished starting in May/June of last year and cleared of hazmat materials above ground leaving behind an entire 10-acre city-block of contaminated dirt under the asphalt. The parcel was sold off by the city to John Graham's Sunbelt Holdings; plans unclear for now. 

 

Or in another example of politics overlapping with "friends-and-family" and undisclosed connections, here is the current District 4 Councilmember Chris Glover endorsing his own second cousin, Jake Brown, saying,
"I am passionate about Mesa's future. In keeping with that spirit I am proud to endorse
Jake Brown for District 4.
Jake is the right person to serve the people of Mesa . . ."
It's common knowledge, and not new information to anyone, that Jake Brown "is involved in real estate", holding a job as prosecutor with the Office of the Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.
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Some people say that all's fair in love, war, and politics but there are rules.
Here's an example in the report from South Carolina:
"State Rep. Jim Merrill was earning money through his public relations company but did not have to disclose who was paying him. In December 2016, a grand jury investigation into corruption in the statehouse indicted Merrill on 30 charges of ethics violations.
Merrill was accused of using his company to accept more than $1 million from groups with interests in state legislation. In 2017, he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they continued their investigation, pleading guilty to one charge of misconduct in office. By May 2017, four South Carolina lawmakers had been indicted as part of the probe.
But in many states, laws and ethics rules allow representatives to advance bills that would benefit their own financial interests, as well . . "

Here in Mesa, except for the mayor who is paid a full-time salary of approximately $75,000 (plus a generous benefit package), all the other six elected members on the Mesa Council earn a part-time salary about half of that.

In part-time and citizen legislatures, in which lawmakers are not paid a full salary and often rely on other employment, this means people connected to certain industries or fields are not automatically barred from voting on legislation that might affect them financially.

Even when a lawmaker doesn’t have a conflict of interest according to ethics rules, some states try to prevent even the “appearance” of a conflict.

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