Driving Through Audit Trails & Downtown Mesa's OZone Investments

Tough Nut-to-Crack when you realize "It’s a pretty tight-knit community of special interests" after any reasonable person who probes deeper into the fog of city finances gets sidelined plowing 'into-the-weeds' at the same time the generations-old political machine pulls all the punches it can and circles-the-wagons to try to defend questionable long-standing loyalties as well as the practices and accounting standards used by city officials to use [they say "leverage'" public funds for their own private wealth-creation while holding public office.
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< Nothing could be more clear than this one image
Former U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon, who resigned to get hired as a high-salaried lobbyist for ASU (sitting in the background) and then-Arizona State Senator Bob Worsley forced to appear in public at a Mesa City Council Study Session back in February 2018.
Worsley and his holding companies had scooped up titles to eight commercial properties on Main Street before the end of 2017 that would only increase and appreciate in value if proposals to finance an ASU campus got taxpayer approval. 

It wasn't until April 2018 - two months later - that federal Opportunity Zones were designated and approved to include 8 census tracts in Downtown Mesa that qualified as long-neglected, distressed and low-income areas.
QUESTION:
Is this acting for self-profit that uses insider information?? 

Then there's this concept of kind of an ongoing mastermind that can build a group and a network of folks that can collectively gain personal benefits.
What are the steps that you take in order to get this off the ground?

Whether that’s a self-directed super Roth where you’re actually gonna be making investments yourself

Whether that’s a community that wants to establish a fund themselves

Whether that’s a college that wants to establish a fund or partner with somebody in order to take advantage of the Opportunity Zones

How can they can go about utilizing and leveraging their resources to create this ecosystem?

Final regulations for this new investment vehicle were only issued by the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department less than three months at the end of 2019.

5 years ago we should have realized that Hizzoner Mesa Mayor John Giles was not the mastermind of the group and the entrenched network of closely connected
"friends-and-families"
He was just trying to pull off a stage-stunt at his first term in office when Mesa taxpayers REJECTED it.
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It's now March 2020 -
Almost the End-of-the-Cycle of Deceit
Questions over the city's tricky financing for ASU still persist
"Mesa officials detail ASU campus financing"

By Jim Walsh, Tribune News Staff East Valley Tribune

                            
"Nearly two years after a split Mesa City Council approved the Arizona State University@mesacitycenter project, the innovative building continues to generate controversy._______________________________________

Councilman Jeremy Whittaker has been consistent in voting against each authorization of funds to pay for the $73. 5 million building, dedicated to movie studios and innovative technology. ASU is contributing $10 million of that price tag.

The building is under construction behind a fence on a site at Center and First Street, between Mesa City Hall and council chambers. ??????????????????????? >

HOLD ON --- The image above ^ is the actual site in real time

"Whittaker again attacked the project last week, based upon its reliance on the Enterprise Fund, which mostly includes profits from city utilities.

“I won’t support any of these projects that continue to drain our utilities,’’ Whittaker said.

“As long as the voters voted against this building, I will vote against this building.’’

 

 

Whittaker’s criticism, though not unexpected, touched off an effort by city officials to explain the project’s financing, which has evolved since Council approves it by a 5-2 vote in June 2018.

Council members Jen Duff, Dave Luna, Vice Mayor Mark Freeman and Mayor John Giles all reiterated their support in one way or another while Councilman Kevin Thompson, who voted against it initially in deference to his constituents, voted for the latest authorization. . . "

MORE TELLING DETAILS FOR CIRCLE-THE-WAGONS

The original project envisioned for ASU was a much larger campus with financing through a sales tax increase that would have also funded hiring more police officers and firefighters.

After Mesa voters rejected that proposal, Giles, a staunch advocate of education and downtown redevelopment, came up with another plan to finance a smaller project through excise bonds backed by the Enterprise Fund.

But City Manager Chris Brady and Budget Director Candace Cannistraro described somewhat different financing as the project moves ahead. 

> Brady adamantly assured Whittaker that no additional funds for the building will come from the Enterprise Fund.

> Brady said revenues from land sales in Pinal County and elsewhere, along with development fees such as construction sales taxes and building permit revenues generated by The Grove and The GRID redevelopment projects, will be applied to paying for the ASU building.

“It’s not just the building itself, it’s the economic activity being leveraged downtown,’’ he said.

“They have indicated that the reason they are here is because of the ASU building.’’

> Cannistraro, who frequently is questioned by Whittaker, said the building’s initial $9 million in revenues came through payments from the Enterprise Fund to the Economic Investment Fund.

She said all additional payments, including the debt service, are coming from the General Fund.

“We are doing many land sales that offset that,’’ Cannistraro said.

> Brady said the land sales and development-related revenues will go toward the principal before the city issues the excise bonds, but for a lower amount than originally planned."

OK. . . Huh?

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> Brady noted that the utility revenues associated with ASU, and other development related to the university, is projected at more than $4 million while the overall economic impact is projected at nearly $10 million. . ."

 

> “I think what we are doing is very consistent with the will of the voters,’’ Giles said.

“The money for this is going to come from the economic activity generated many times over.’’