Talking About Performance (Without Complicating It)

Shooting in America > Mesa Police Department Making World Media Headlines

Your Mesona blogger is not going to sensationalize the issue of officer-involved shootings, but it's mostly been the focus in cities across America for racial issues time and time again in Ferguson, Missouri, South Carolina, New York City and Chicago where both police departments and mayors have come under citizen and media scrutiny to address the problem and to change the structure for police accountability and transparency, re-education and training/sensitivity and improvement in police-community relations to restore trust in the ostensible stated mission of the police forces "to serve and to protect".
Recent incidents here in Mesa have grabbed headlines all over the country and now all over the world.
It is unfortunate to say the least in a city wanting to create a new image when the message that is getting out appears to show a trigger-happy police force.
Readers can access the webpage for the police department on the City of Mesa website by going to this link for media relations >> http://www.mesaaz.gov/residents/police/departments-divisions/media-relations/news-releases

Please note there has been no news release since 19 Jan 2016
The MPD also publishes a blog >> mesapd.blogspot.com

There was a report on the blog from Tue 19 Jan 2016

Media Release - Officer Involved Shooting

On January 18, 2016 at approximately 9:20 p.m., Mesa Police Officers responded to 6530 E. Superstition Springs Blvd., the La Quinta Inn, for a report of a subject pointing a rifle out of an upstairs room window.

That's the official story . . .

The most recent about a transgender individaul hit the news feeds and alerts yesterday:
Viral Apserger’s Sufferer Shot and Killed by Police in Arizona
Jack Phillips, Epoch Times | Last Updated: February 6, 2016 1:34 pm

The Epoch Times is part of Epoch Media Group, http://www.epochmediagroup.com/ , the world's fastest growing media group, whose CEO believes There comes a time in one’s life when one can sense something greater than oneself happening. It takes hold of you, sends a shiver up your spine, and provides the moment of greatest clarity. It brings a comforting blanket of warmth and sense of purpose, and yet is so electrifying that one can hardly think to sit down, even if a thousand hours have passed.
In that moment you realize that everything has changed and nothing will be the same moving forward.
A YouTube video of the person that was killed went viral after getting included on The Huffington Post [LINK to the heart-wrenching video farther below]. Dear readers, please read the entire article reproduced below that corrects a claim made by the Mesa Police Department that "they didn't know . . . "

(YouTube/screenshot)

Danielle Jacobs, a 24-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome, was fatally shot by police in Arizona, according to reports
Mesa police went to the home of Jacobs, who appeared in a viral video last year. In the video, Jacobs—who was known to friends as Kayden Clarke—is seen crying before a dog comes in.
Police said that Jacobs charged at authorities with a knife, and they didn’t know Jacobs had Asperger’s, a high-functioning variant of autism, CNN reported.
Jacobs’ mother Stacia told the New York Daily News that officers knew.
“Before the police arrived she wasn’t posing a threat to the community at all,” Stacia said. “And the police came into her own place. They shot and killed a 24-year-old autistic, mentally ill individual whom they had been familiar with and aware of her special needs.”
“I talked to her last night and the night before and she seemed fine,” Stacia said, describing Jacobs as a “caring young woman.”
Detective Estaban Flores said officers went to Jacobs’ home after getting reports of an individual was threatening suicide. He said two officers talked to Jacobs through an open door in the hallway before Jacobs came out and lunged at them with a kitchen knife.
“At that point they felt their lives were threatened,” Flores said, adding that both officers opened fire.
In the viral video, Jacobs is seen sobbing as a Rottweiler, named Samson, attempts to calm Jacobs down. “When I have a meltdown, I often have self-injurious behavior and I often self-harm,” Jacobs told the Huffington Post after the video went viral.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to Danielle’s family and friends,” Julian Maha, the founder and CEO of the autism nonprofit, Kulture City, told The Mighty.
“This tragedy highlights the increased need for first responder training to teach first responders to effectively interact with autistic and special needs individuals. The training will give them much needed tools to effectively communicate with autistic individuals, help keep both parties safe and hopefully prevent tragedies like these.”

Here's the video

Next Generation in The New Urban Downtown Mesa

Miss Mesa Outstanding Teen 2016 - Holly Sullivan - took the time today to stop and say hello to the volunteer organizers of MACFest [70 vendors attracting a crowd here]

Born in Mesa > GuitarMan Joel Parker

 

Dude's got talent - seen and heard on the street corner at MacDonald/Main  during MACFest today.
Writes his own songs now


Has a day job

If any talent scouts see this > just go for it

Taking the time for a pic with Miss Teen Mesa 2016

 

Here's a YouTube video to enjoy earlier in his life ..

WhatWorksMesa > Achievement in Open Data from City Hall

Open data is data that anyone can access, use or share.
The future will be built on open data – here’s why
Data has the power to revolutionise and disrupt the way societies are governed. None more so than open data, which is free to access, free to use and can be shared by anyone. It’s non-personal and can be used to identify and predict large-scale trends and behaviours. This is as opposed to closed data that is restricted to internal use by an organization.

That is exactly why your MesaZona blogger has been asking when some of the results from joining Bloomberg Philanthropies WhatWorksCities initiative back in August of last year can be made available. Some three months later appointments got announced on Twitter on 05 Nov 2015  by city manager Chris Brady to the inside-City Hall Leadership Board and now six months later with nothing to report about Open Data.

The future of open data is a collaborative process with the aim of providing civic benefits. Organizations need to share their data and work together to create novel uses for it that make our lives easier or richer. Using data that describes the patterns behind how we live can help us solve problems in ways we might not have foreseen.
Theconversation.com

In all these cases, the way to fast-forward innovation and create new solutions to problems is to create open data partnerships with participants who are willing to share and collaborate on new disruptive initiatives [ Blogger's note: that may challenge Mesa City Hall ].
Many of these initiatives have already proven to bring benefits to people, government and businesses. It is a new era of increased transparency and democracy where data is no longer in the hands of only governments and commercial organizations. Using open data presents opportunities for commerce, while also improving communities and everyday living for citizens.
While this particular department is inside City Hall, the public can access the website for the City Purchasing Department that reports to the Business Services Director,
http://www.mesaaz.gov/business/purchasing        

Information about the awarding of contracts or bid solicitations is sometimes a problem in requesting open data. However, those things can be accessed by hitting this link >>
http://mesaaz.gov/business/purchasing/bid-opportunities/open-solicitations/-sortn-RFPNumber/-sortd-desc

Its vision is to be leaders in the field of public procurement and strategic sourcing, bringing value and efficiency to each procurement while at the same time operating within City policy, statute and sound business practices.
Values

• Accountability - Taking ownership and being responsible to stakeholders for our actions...essential to preserve the public trust and protect the public interest.
• Ethics - Acting in a manner true to these values...essential to preserve the public's trust.
• Impartiality - Unbiased decision-making and action...essential to ensure fairness for the public good.
• Professionalism - Upholding high standards of job performance and ethical behavior...essential to balance diverse public interests.
• Service - Obligation to assist stakeholders...essential to support the public good.
• Transparency - Easily accessible and understandable policies and procedures...essential to demonstrate responsible use of public funds.

In 2015, the National Purchasing Institute honored Mesa's Purchasing Division with the "Achievement of Excellence in Procurement" award for the eleventh consecutive year.  This prestigious award recognizes organizational excellence in public procurement and is awarded to those organizations that meet criteria designed to measure innovation, professionalism, e-procurement, productivity and leadership.  We focus on delivering the highest quality of service and value our partnerships with vendors, contractors, employees, supervisors and managers.  We continually seek new ways to improve our services and satisfy the needs of our customers.

BIG FAIL [again] in Arizona Education

Lot of talk and promises about being Mesa being "a leading center in innovation" and "The New American University" [ASU is ranked #31 in pubic institutions-see previous post] and going after "high-pay and high-tech jobs" but the data, facts and report studies strongly point to a basic failure to achieve educational goals time and time again.
Sorry, dear readers for another "downer" dear readers, but on the education front some things are definitely down.
An article from Cronkite News appearing yesterday and the day before was quoting a spokesperson saying "We want Arizona to be at the top of these lists . . ."  and that the State is already working on these high-stake challenges". Huh?

Let's get real: wanting does not equate with wish-fulfillment - clearly the rhetoric does not fit the facts and statistics from many sources.
Likewise, unsupported defense and denial for student failure by public education in Arizona does not solve a very serious problem, brought to attention again by yet a national report card released on Tuesday by the Network for Public Education that included the infographic to the right.
Does it soothe any discomfort or pain or hard recognition of the facts for Cronkite News reporter Danika Washington to say that Arizona is one of six states failing?



While this is the most recent report that so-called education advocates have been hit with naming it "a call to action", apparently nobody or few are listening to calls - or facts - time and time again here in Arizona.
The infographic to the left is taken from a piece called
Leaders and Laggards:
A State-by-State Report Card
on Public Postsecondary Education

Why This Report?

#1 It's from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Projections of labor market demand show that two-thirds of all jobs will require some postsecondary education by 2018; however, given today’s disappointing levels of higher education productivity, labor economists estimate that the United States will fall 7 million degrees short. While American employers increasingly struggle to find the talent they need to grow our economy, our youngest workers rank a disappointing 15th out of 34 industrialized countries in the percentage with a college diploma.
https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/reportcard/
In measuring academic achievements these categories are used for evaluation:
Academic Achievement of Low-Income and Minority Students
Return on Investment ROI
Truth in Advertising About Student Proficiency
Rigor of Standards
Post-Secondary and Workforce-Readiness
21st Century Teaching Force
Flexibility in Management & Policy
Data Quality
Arizona is 10th from the bottom of the list

Mesa 11 Live Stream STATE OF THE CITY 2016

 A slick and over-produced montage with the mayor running into the ballroom at Mesa Convention Center . . "I may look stupid, but ...." . . . . "things are great . . . getting better"  . . . .  . if we can engage with one another ... presented by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce.

Props and characters used in the mayor's performance:
The mayor and The Sun Devils Mascot
[what's that old metaphor? ...
judged by the company we keep]

Here's a link if you want to watch later >> hit the play arrow on the screen