Time-To-Pay > The-Pied--Piper Moment for Mesa City Manager Chris Brady

What does he who pays the pied- piper mean?

Looks like all those Pie-In-The-Sky schemes pushed by Mesa City Manager Chris Brady and the city's Office of Management & Budget during the past four years in that big beautiful "Grab-Bag-of-Goodies" for everybody that tricked Mesa taxpayers to go into more debt in the November 2018 ballot proposals are getting a heavy dose of REALITY . . . Better late than never

East Valley Tribune staff writer Jim Walsh barely hit the nail-on-the-head or scored any points to tell the public what's really going down here in Mesa. He covered "amenities" only, not getting a grip on the tough stuff that's hard to swallow:
Mesa voters approved virtually every sort of municipal amenity in last fall's
$196-million bond issue - from a new library and public safety station to athletic fields and walking paths to new parks and even a dog park . . . One important consideration in adding the new facilities is whether there is enough money available . . . "

WHOA!! Why worry now after all their projections and cost analysis  were wrong? 

"We are concerned as we get to the later part of it, when we deliver big parks and libraries, that will put a lot of strain on the budget"

-- City Manager Chris Brady

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SCAMMING THE VOTERS:

Not just so-called "amenties" - ASU is the bigger scam-scheme.

One new building ASU @ Mesa City Center estimated to cost $63,000,000 in preliminary fast-plans to get it started - a scaled -down $200-million "satellite ASU campus" that Mesa taxpayers rejected two years ago - now requires extensive investigation according to a City Council Report last week.

Back to the drawing boards - need a new architect!

All the plans presented for that one new 118,000 sq ft building now require awarding a new $800,000 contract to hire not only a new architect and a new developer but also a designated CMAR [Contract Manager At Risk] who can guarantee a Maximum Cost and  issuance of an RFQ for a design consultant with an estimated project cost of $6,000,000 to fully renovate all floors of an existing 26,500 sq ft city-owned building at 59 E First Street for what's called "The Studios @ Mesa City Center"

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Conflict Of Interest Questions Arise In Mesa ASU Project Votes

May 28, 2018 ADI News Service

Source: Arizona Daily Independent

 

A $120 million “handout” to ASU by the City of Mesa has two City Council members crying foul. Mesa City Council members Kevin Thompson and Jeremy Whittaker are questioning a series of decisions and statements involving the funding of new facilities for ASU
" . . . Elected officials on every level of government in Arizona are expected to adhere to ethical standards. Those standards include disclosing and avoiding any actual or apparent conflict of interest. Conflicts of interests would involve voting on issues involving entities in which an official would have a pecuniary interest. This conflict exists even for public officials who have recently left a job in an entity whether public or private.
As a result, votes cast in favor of the ASU deal by council members Glover and Luna have raised eyebrows. Ironically Glover teaches “Organizational Ethics” at ASU, according to the University’s website. Luna “also spent time as an adjunct professor for both Arizona State University and Mesa Community College,” according to the City’s website. ASU’s website shows that Luna last taught there in 2017. Luna was clearly employed by the University in 2016 when the project was first proposed. . . In a letter dated May 4, 2018, Mesa resident Gene Dufoe, the head of Keeping Mesa Great, advised the mayor and council members of the group’s consideration of filing a lawsuit in response to the funding scheme and what they believe is an inappropriate use of utility revenues.
Dufoe’s group gave the City until June 5, to “cease its unlawful practices.” Defoe wrote, “If such confirmation is not received by June 5, 2018, we will have no alternative but to file suit and seek declaratory relief, refunding of expenses incurred in any legal proceedings, and a permanent injunction enjoining the City from issuing bonds.”
Dufoe’s group questions why the City is “choosing to raise utility rates when it has $140 million in general obligation bonds unspent in 2016.” He argues that the “tax is not needed but will enable spending without limitation.”
Other residents are rumored to be considering launching recall efforts against Giles, Freeman, Heredia, Glover, and Luna.

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For his part, Whittaker outlined his objections on his website last week due to the “ton of misinformation going around regarding the new downtown ASU project…. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on this issue but not to their own facts."

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Here's a previous post on this blog:

25 January 2018

Mesa City Budget = "Non-Issue" ?? Says Who? Mesa Is Deep In Debt

 In some comments in the opening minutes of the Mesa City Council Study Session on Monday, January 22, 2018 City Manager Chris Brady appeared relieved when the Final Budget Audit done in-house became what he called "a Non-Issue" by getting placed as an item on the Consent Agenda where all items are usually approved all at once and in one fell swoop without any questions or comments from either any member of the public or any of the six Councilmembers.

THE TAKE-AWAY:   (Bad accounting is) really undermining our democracy's ability to knowledgeably participate."

The Mesa City Council 'Squad'

Chris Brady -who is the City's Chief Executive - was cued to make some comments by Mayor John Gilesthat the audit was put on the Consent Agenda instead of facing questions or comments from any member of the public or any six Mesa Councilmembers who usually fall into step into unanimous and fast approval of the entire Consent Agenda.

That's what works here in Mesa when so few people in the community of almost 500,000 are actively engaged in participation in their elected government or even bother be interested in what city officials are doing - the hidden cost? Every taxpayer's debt burden is almost $6,000 

There's some excellent research and attention to details in this report published yesterday by AZ Republic reporter Jessica Boehm, updated just this afternoon 25 Jan 2018 at 2:06 pm MT
Blogger's Note: There are numerous posts on this blog going back to last year and before about these accounting methods, unfunded liabilities, and the dangers of increasing Bond Debt that bankrolls the costs of Suburban Sprawl
Phoenix, Mesa earn 'D' grades in financial-health review due to pension debt

"The Valley's two largest cities earned "D" grades in an annual review of government financial health because they don't have enough money to pay their bills.

Truth in Accounting, a national fiscal watchdog non-profit, released its "Financial State of the Cities" report this week, which analyzes the financial audits of the 75 most populous cities in the country. . . "

Mesa's shortfall is $784.6 million, or $5,900 per taxpayer.

Mesa also has a hefty unfunded retiree healthcare liability of $646 million, which adds to its problem, Truth in Accounting CEO Sheila Weinberg said.

"We can't ignore that," Weinberg said. But cities have tried to in the past, she said.

'Phony government accounting'

Apparently it wasn't Mesa City Manager Chris Brady who got put on-the-hook by the reporter:

"Mesa Chief Financial Officer Michael Kennington said the city responsibly manages all of its expenses, including pension and retiree health-care costs.

"While we applaud the Truth in Accounting group’s effort to provide ‘easy-to-understand’ financial information about local governments, we don’t agree with the methodology used or with several of the subjective assumptions made and don’t really understand the purpose of this report," Kennington said in a statement. 

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What voters should know

Weinberg said

it's critical that residents are educated about their city's financial health and understand the consequences of growing debt.

"If they knew the city was running deficits, maybe they would have voted for somebody different," she said. "

(Bad accounting is) really undermining our democracy's ability to knowledgeably participate."

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Link to the source > click here

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OK. . . How's the City of Mesa's credit and how's the Mesa City Manager's Credibility?? 
In the over 12 years of Chris Brady's high-salaried tenure as the city's chief executive officer, the public debt has risen drastically from less than $40M in 2006 to over $750 today in 2018

June 14 2018 Mesa City Council Study Session

On agenda:

6/14/2018

Title:

Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on general obligation bond items for the 2018 election including funding mechanisms, and operations and maintenance costs for public safety, parks and cultural projects, and the Mesa Plays project.

Attachments:

1. Presentation - Bond Projects, 2. Presentation - Mesa Plays Project Financing

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Follow-up question: Do you trust and have confidence
in city manager Chris Brady? 

Meeting Name:

City Council Study Session