Shallow Local Reporting By AZCentral Re: Mesa City Council

Nice to see at least some hyper-local heat from AZ Central reporter Lily Altavena who's just 'getting warm' when it comes to getting down to the real nitty-gritty grime that's tainted this city for generations creating behind-the-scenes closely-connected networks of friends-and-family who control everything inside and outside of City Hall across-the-board.
It's time way overdue to dive deep into polluted politics.
Don't hold your breath. It stinks. Here's just a whiff of the slime on the surface:
If you're like most people who live here in Mesa, you have hardly any idea what's going on inside city government and the forces-that-be really like it that way - not engaged.
Politicians come and go, frequently to other positions 

Councilman says campaign donations make Mesa 'more corrupt' than D.C.
Lily Altavena, Arizona Republic 
Published 12:38 p.m. MT July 25, 2018
Immediately at the start, Lily Altavena makes an open-ended statement,
"The influence campaign donations carry is open to debate."
That certainly sets the stage for another jive at that Trumpian Believe-It-Or-Not scenario . . .
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Later on she characterizes what is a long-missing necessary component of representative democracy and open, transparent and accountable governance - critical and robust informed discussion - as Discord has fermented between Whittaker and other council members for months. 

Whittaker is one of the loudest critics of Mesa's deal to bring Arizona State University to its downtown.  
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It's up to voters to decide whether campaign money matters.  To decide, you really need to get informed on the issues at stake in your lives and future here in Mesa.
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Let's PAUSE right there on the word debate! There's a Primary Election ahead for not just three but four seats on the Mesa City Council. Early voting starts next Wednesday - just a week in advance of Lily Altavena's report. She's not covered in detail any or all the candidates although that's her job. Furthermore, there have been absolutely no public candidate debates organized or scheduled in the public interest to allow us to make an informed decision who to choose . . . We are left in the dark with nothing out there to shed some light on the candidates in this election. We need to mobilize to demand transparency.
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Five days ago your MesaZona blogger posted this post. Here's an excerpt for your interest where links to official City of Mesa sites are included to follow some of the money and view required financial disclosure statements.

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 . . ."  starting 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 right 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.

Read more of the post on this blog site from 22 July 2018 >> here
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The entire AZ Central article from two days ago can be viewed here. You are encouraged to read it for some of the reactions by the two Mesa City Councilmembers cited in the financial disclosures for campaign contributions that include un-named developers (see links below). Most of these contributions involved actions to approve multi-million dollar speculative real estate gambling on downtown that get leveraged around a tentative ASU project. ASU already has a campus in East Mesa, outside of Tempe where it's devoured downtown. 

One current one-term state senator Mesa Mega-Millionaire conservative Mormon Republican Bob Worsley appeared back in February in front of the Mesa City Council after public anger was aroused over two things: his $20-million chump-change lowball buy-out of more than ten Main Street commercial properties in newly-formed holding companies and a speculative gamble on a $130-Million mixed-use proposal atop a city-owned parking lot for 'upscale luxury living' in the downtown distressed neighborhood.
He was joined and supported by former U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon (who owns a public relations/lobbying company with his wife who works at Banner Healthcare). 
Salmon snagged a high-paying job before retiring from public office with ASU as Vice-President of Government Affairs two years ago. 
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The stage for all this in next month's Primary Election was all set two years ago - and way before - and it runs deep about 35 years.          
Credit goes to Lily Altavena for this:

"Developers, zoning attorneys and others with financial stakes in growth are among the most common contributors to city council campaigns. In the last campaign finance filing period, The Arizona Republic found that at least 44 percent of individual contributions to Mesa City Council candidates are from those involved in development.  

Donors include developers chosen by council for a massive office park project on city-owned land, a state senator redeveloping a swath of properties along Mesa's Main Street and dairy farmers looking to rezone and sell their land for development 

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In addition, please note just one example of a powerful group necessary 'to grease-the-skids' : ZONING ATTORNEYS. Altavena just puts her finger on that 

". . . Tempe takes campaign finance transparency further than other Valley cities, requiring candidates to clearly mark donations from lobbyists, or anyone paid to influence city policy or decisions, such as a developer-paid zoning attorney. . . "
Blogger Note: Here in Mesa on the Planning & Zoning Board Jessica Sarkassian is closely entwined with a group of these