22 July 2018

Mobilizing The Public Here In Mesa: Mesa City Council Is More Corrupt Than Congress

Whoever said that Mesa is boring was trying to trick you into believing a fake Urban Legend that never really existed "Once upon a time . . ."  strting in 1883 or even in the year 2012 when Scott Smith was elected mayor, as the first outsider to get the top elected job inside City Hall. He followed in the long line of succession of 40 mostly Mormon males who have controlled a dominant massive political machine and inter-connected powerful network of friends-and-families who have ruled this city for six generations.
They control almost everything in business, politics and government: Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Education.
They say "It's the Mesa way of doing business" where they all get a cut in their Group-Think Mentality masquerading CORRUPTION.
Let's not get fooled again, folks, with another election in the works playing us all again for fools. Time to wake up and be less stupid, but it surely takes more than that to stop this generations-old system of corruption where few benefit and everyone pays - whether you know it or not.
To the run is the current Mesa City Council in some posed public relations goof photo opp with Jivin' John Giles leading the pack.
A motley crew for sure where just one councilmember, Jeremy Whittaker second from left, is stepping out to publish some things in local politics he finds disturbing, asking at the outset: 
"Should the individuals and organizations whose issues are being voted on by a governing body also be lining the pockets of the politicians who sit on that governing body?" 
QUICK ANSWER: Hell no - that's illegal and punishable. Who's gonna get these corrupt parasites. . . It's up to you, dear readers to demand action if these bad actors get nailed.
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Your MesaZona blogger has been posting clues about this endless cycle of corruption for more than two years. Some have accused me of not being forthcoming enough. At the same time, some of those in the hyper-local political power structure have called me to my face 'a trouble-maker'.
Well let's bring it on!  
Mesa is way overdue to get investigated to root out corruption.
Here are some clear facts and evidence presented in what Jeremy Whittaker published recently:
Mesa City Council, more corrupt than anyone in Washington D.C 
Source: http://www.jeremywhittaker.com
"We always address this issue at a national level, perhaps even a state level, but what about in our own backyard?
What about our own municipal elections for Mayor and City Council? Every single person who has donated to one of these politicians on the issues I outline below passed through City Council.
This behavior indicates that our elected body no longer represents the people that it is supposed to, rather, quite the opposite. Whoever has the money buys the politician, the politician then enacts the policies to enrich the donor and the cycle continues . . . "
With that, today marks the day in which we get to see who is buying our local politicians in Mesa. There are two candidates that are running for re-election, and one unopposed. Their financial disclosure forms are available below.
Francisco Heredia __________________________________________________________________________________
Pay to play politics
What becomes apparent is that candidates are being bought and their principles, assuming they had any, discarded.  I find it hard to believe this is the democracy our forefathers envisioned. Let’s take a Look at these campaign finance forms and how to buy votes on a City Council.
 
BLOGGER NOTE: More details can be viewed click here
Some of the highlights are bulleted below for your interest
 
  • Million dollar land sale deal near the Cubs stadium, who has the biggest checkbook?
  • Build a downtown ASU campus to make your friends rich. No problem, we’ll just pay for it using the water bill revenues.
State Senator, Bob Worsley, who also owns multiple properties around the new ASU downtown campus that Council forced through last month (after voters rejected it in 2016). Here is one of his donations to Vice-Mayor David Luna. . . You can start to see how this pay to play politics works. Individuals or corporations who want to make money on City Council decisions donate money to their campaigns. They then have that Council member at their disposal when it comes to voting on their issues:
  • Sunbelt holdings owns a large plot of land directly next to the new ASU development and what do you know, another political donation
  • Want a multi-million dollar contract to build a water treatment plant for Mesa? Better pay up.
  • Want to rezone acres of dairy land for residential houses and make millions? Pay the pied piper.
  • Want to rezone the downtown LDS Temple and demolish historic homes? No problem, but there’s a cost to that
  • Build a $100 million dollar soccer complex(Questions 4,5,6 on your November ballot)? No problem, pay up
  • Millionaire investors - and you want to remodel your commercial buildings at the expense of the taxpayer? Sure, but make sure the Mayor gets his cut.
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Allow Illegal collective bargaining? Sure, but at a hefty price:
The biggest portion of our budget for the city is allocated to personnel or employees. More specifically in that group, public safety. So why are the fire unions donating thousands of dollars to politicians? The answer is simple. They know that once they are elected to power they can get whatever they need the council to approve whether it be salary increases or supporting the completely bankrupt retirement fund which is set to cost the city almost $1 billion dollars, more information on that here – http://www.jeremywhittaker.com/direct/is-the-psprs-pension-bankrupting-mesa-and-other-municipalities/ 

Collective bargaining is illegal per the City’s Charter.

As I try to ask questions to determine if the city is collectively bargaining with unions you can see the Mayor quick ends this conversation. The City has been collectively bargaining with unions which is illegal per the charter.

Why does the Mayor not want me asking these questions?
Well, let’s take a look at his financial disclosure forms. . .
Go here >> http://www.jeremywhittaker.com
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". . . .It makes a lot more sense to me now why the City tries to file frivolous lawsuits against candidates running for City Council. It is a desperate attempt to maintain their power."
– https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/05/25/mesa-arizona-city-threatening-city-council-candidate-with-lawsuit-for-using-mesa-logo/
Is this what you think democracy looks like?
The decision will be yours on August 28th and November 6th to start making some changes.
 
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