18 February 2021

7 Minutes of Remote Zoom Virtual Reality: February 2021 Episode Mesa Morning Live Featured Guest: Michael Crow


Comedian-host Mark Cordes has not one but two guests on this once-a-month early morning program produced for public consumption: WHO CAN OUT-TALK WHO?
> One is the fast-talking Michael Crowe, earning more than $1,000,000 in salary as the president of a public institution/education factory, shown in the splitscreen of the segment for the streaming video uploaded to YouTube yesterday.
Host Mark Cortés looks like magician from "Lord of The Rings"
> The other is Hizzoner John Giles, now in his second term as the mayor of Mesa who has somehow managed to elbow his way into the Zoom room stating he's "on a mission".
In his first inauguration Giles admitted publicly he needs new ideas.
The two of them have a contentious history (2016 and 2018) for trying to extend the real estate footprint of the ASU campus that devoured Downtown Tempe by hiring ex-U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon as a high-paid lobbyist as VP of Government Affairs.
Taxpayers here in Mesa first REJECTED a $200M Debt Obligation Tax Scam perpetrated on the public to pay for "a satellite campus" of three new buildings when ASU - with a huge billion-or-more endowment - could have paid for that themselves.
Waging a massive privately-funded $500,000 public relations campaign, taxpayers were hood-winked into a scaled-down $63M proposition to fund one new construction where costs have escalated in additional price increases for Contract Managers At Risk beyond $75M.
ASU agreed to throw in $10M for programs and equipment and received overly generous annual lease incentives while Benedictine University has become the less-favored university after more than five years of being invited to establish here in re-use adaptations of existing buildings for more than 500 students.
Bolstering and pushing questionable claims and studies, city officials presented justification for asking Mesa taxpayers to go into debt for was a prepared Economic Impact Statement provided by in-house ASU. If that ain't a conflict-of-interest when an institution prepares its own dog food to feed  to the public, anyone reasonable person is entitled to doubt it.
2 weeks ago - in another virtual reality event - Giles and Crowe launched another public relations media campaign to include a film school (and all kinds of 'side-deals' and/or 'public private partnerships') that would be incorporated into the one new 3-story construction behind City Hall Plaza - this was all done without any public participation or approval by the public!
IN THESE PANDEMIC TIMES EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED - Higher Education, including high-priced degrees for 4-years on-campus and in-person costing about $100,000 for students at ASU is being challenged.
Go ahead and watch and listen to "The Mike & John Show" as they throw out any ideas they can throw -
BE PREPARED
Who has the final say? ...The public. After all in these times of recession and an economic crisis, WHO IS GOING TO PAY?
 

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