27 January 2021

4 More Years For John Giles? Can We Expect or Demand More Than Outlines + The Same-Old Rhetoric

By now, home-grown John Giles - a former track star and owner of a personal injury/accident law firm, who served four years on the Mesa City Council 1996-2000 (14 years out of public office) later got 'a calling' to fill in the unexpired term of former Mayor Scott Smith who had higher ambitions - has a public track record for challenges of his own going into the second and last 4-year term as the highest elected official inside City Hall.
He was sworn-in and signed the Oath of Office during a night-time ceremony outdoors at the Mesa Amphitheater earlier this month
Mayor John Giles (@MayorGiles) | Twitter
So far this year he has in his official capacity as mayor and presiding officer, conducted Mesa City Council study sessions and regular meetings working from a remote location at home, as well as appearing as an ex-officio member of the Economic Development Advisory Board.
What can we expect in the first year of his last term serving the public interest while being the self-described city's 'chief cheerleader' and 'salesman' who always has to make a pitch?
We got that in the kick-off of the first Mesa City Council Study Session. . . if you missed it, here's a sketch provided provided by two of the city's favorite publish-what-you're-told corporate media machines that have been fed into other media influencers.
Here's a glimpse of a bottom-of-the-frontpage story from the East Valley Tribune >
The Mesa Tribune - Zone 1 - 01.17.2021 by Times Media Group - Issuu
 
 
followed by an insert on  January 14, 2021 at 21:3

Mesa Mayor John Giles lays out 5 priorities, with navigating the COVID-19 pandemic topping the list Mesa goals: COVID-19, education, digital access, inclusion, environment

By Alison Steinbach | Arizona Republic
Alfred Lucero for (CNT) City News Talk #mesa-az
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The mayor outlined goals for:
COVID-19
Education
The Digital Divide / Digital access
Inclusivity / Nondiscrimination
Environmental sustainability
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BLOGGER NOTE: OUTLINING ALONE DOES NOT QUITE MAKE THE GRADE >
4 futurists on how to be forward-thinking in a post-COVID-19 world
THE CITY OF MESA HAS NOT YET PRODUCED DATA OR FACTS THAT CAN DETERMINE IF ITS OVER-HYPED STRATEGIES ARE WORKING
The city received about $90 million in direct federal aid and spent a total of about $132 million on its coronavirus relief response last year.
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"Mesa Mayor John Giles urged the city to focus on five areas as he begins his second full term leading Arizona’s third largest city: the COVID-19 pandemic, education, the digital divide, inclusivity and environmental sustainability.

Giles gave a “change is good” speech when he first became mayor six years ago. That message is still true, he told the City Council on Monday, as he called on the city to renew its enthusiasm, readdress its goals and make progress.

Responding to COVID-19 will remain the top priority, but the city needs to “chew gum and walk at the same time,” he said.

Huh GIFs | Tenor

“We can’t do exclusively COVID relief. At some point, we’re going to come out of this and we need to be ready and prepared as a community to respond and to heal,” Giles said.

The mayor outlined goals for:

COVID-19.

Education.

Digital access.

Nondiscrimination.

Environmental sustainability.

“An ongoing effective pandemic response, focusing on education and equality and the environment — these are not luxuries. These are necessities. And if we want our city to thrive, we must commit to finding ways to realize progress on these important topics,” Giles said.

Giles was sworn in to office last week alongside Councilmembers Mark Freeman, beginning his second term; Francisco Heredia, beginning his first full term after completing a former council member’s term; and Julie Spilsbury, beginning her first term.

Pandemic relief aid to COVID-19 vaccines

Giles said the top priority must continue to be health and safety during the pandemic, and the long road ahead to returning to normal.

“We are still in the midst of a global pandemic. It’s worse now than it ever has been, in fact. The pandemic continues to deserve our continued, effective, emergency response,” he said.

Mesa will continue to funnel available funds into areas of need, he said, adding that more federal relief may be coming with new leadership.

“When or if more funds are on the way, I want people to know that we’re going to do everything we can to get them out the door and into the hands of individuals and businesses as quickly as possible as we have done over this last year,” Giles said, referencing Mesa CARES programs such as business assistance, food distribution, homeless assistance, remote educational access and rent and utility aid.

The city received about $90 million in direct federal aid and spent a total of about $132 million on its coronavirus relief response last year.

Giles said the city is working to partner with Maricopa County to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine as quickly and efficiently as possible throughout Mesa in the coming weeks and months.

“Getting vaccinated is going to help you, it’s going to help your family and it’s going to help our community to be healthy and safe,” he said.

Education: ‘No longer can Mesa be known as a tale of 2 cities’

Giles said he wants to see Mesa city government continue to prioritize education.

He plans to create the Mesa Education Council, a group of education leaders, school superintendents and business leaders who will collaborate to boost educational attainment and job training throughout Mesa.

“No longer can Mesa be known as a tale of two cities,” he said. “It’s critical that we not leave people and neighborhoods behind as we become a more prosperous and better educated community.”

The city has been more directly involved in educational initiatives than many Valley cities, much through Giles’ advocacy. Existing initiatives include Mesa K-Ready, a free program to improve kindergarten readiness, and Mesa Counts on College and the Mesa College Promise Program to help boost higher education attainment and pay community college tuition for low-income students.

Ending the digital divide

The pandemic uncovered the divide in internet access, and Mesa needs to do better, Giles said.

Residents must have access to high-quality technology at home so the “digital divide” doesn’t prevent families from educating their children when school is not in-person, he said.

“This has become a more and more obvious and acute problem,” he said.

Giles called for adoption of a plan for a citywide conduit system to get fiber networks to every home and business in Mesa.

Protecting civil rights

Giles said he wants to adopt a nondiscrimination ordinance “that protects the constitutional and civil rights” of everyone in Mesa.

“We all take great pride in our city being a diverse and inclusive and a compassionate city,” Giles said. “I want everyone to know that’s true about Mesa. I want us to be known as a welcoming city that respects the rights of all residents, businesses and visitors.”

Tempe, for example, has such an ordinance that makes it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, age, nationality, sexual orientation, disability and other categories. Individuals can file complaints, and the city’s diversity office investigates complaints of discrimination at workplaces, public accommodations and housing.

Giles and Scottsdale city leaders, in 2018, pressed state lawmakers to pass statewide protections for LGBTQ people, with Giles calling it “the right thing to do.” But the measure did not pass.

Scottsdale’s new mayor, David Ortega, also recently said a city nondiscrimination ordinance that would extend to sexual orientation is a priority.. . 

Shoring up recycling and carbon neutrality

Giles lastly reaffirmed what he views as a city commitment to environmental responsibility. He said he wants the City Council to commit to reducing Mesa’s carbon footprint and shoring up its recycling program.

“This is not an issue that we can take for granted,” he said, adding that organizations, businesses and governments around the world are setting goals for sustainability.

Giles said he wants Mesa to explore how it can become a carbon neutral city, meaning any carbon dioxide emissions would be balanced by carbon offsets or removal.

He also wants the city to invest in making sure “we will always have a reliable and sustainable recycling program.”

Mesa recently paused recycling due to impacts from COVID-19 and vendor contracts. The program has since rebooted, but the status quo is not ideal, as the global recycling market has been unsteady and costly in the last several years.

Mesa leaders are considering several long-term solutions, including building the city’s own recycling facility or working across the region to use existing city-run facilities rather than continuing to contract with private companies.

https://mesanewsandtalk.com/ 

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9 Mayors on What Washington Can Learn From Local Government

From left: John Giles (R), Mesa, Arizona; Pete Buttigieg (D), South Bend, Indiana; Kasim Reed (D), Atlanta; and Mike Rawlings (D), Dallas. Photo: Edmund D. Fountain

Our national political environment might be paralyzed by partisanship, culture-war posturing, and erratic leadership, but our cities tend to be resilient, even when they’re flash points for national disasters, both natural and man-made. At least that’s the perspective of many mayors. One Saturday morning in early August, nine who were in New Orleans for the U.S. Conference of Mayors gave a couple hours of their time to discuss just why that’s the case — and why Washington might benefit from thinking more like them. . .

QUESTION: What also seems to be lacking in Washington right now is new ideas. If you could get a little time with top leaders in Washington and just shake them and say “Pay attention to this,” what would “this” be?

John Giles (R), Mesa, Arizona: I’ll throw in a different perspective: that of a border state. NAFTA, as you know, is under real attack. That is putting a lot of border states like Arizona and California and Texas into a tizzy, because we spend a lot of time doing international-trade development. We’re coming up with some great ideas in my community; we’re talking about becoming a hub for e-commerce for Mexico by getting pre-clearance from Customs for packages leaving Mesa’s airport, and we came up with this without any assistance from the federal government. I wish they would come to our communities and figure out how to do international trade.

Mesa, Arizona’s Mayor on How to Be a Republican Mayor of a Border City

“We are in the process of doing a big deal that involves international trade with Mexico, and when the rhetoric coming out of Washington is ‘We need to scrap trade deals with Mexico,’ that has an impact on my economy. When I’ve got people in my community afraid to call police officers when they’re the victims of crimes, that makes it more difficult for us to create a safe environment for everyone. I think the Republican Party is making a huge mistake by not reaching out more to the Latino community. We ought to be doing everything we can to build bridges with them, and so the pardoning of Sheriff Arpaio complicates that.” —John Giles (R)

 

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