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POTLUCK > Did Ya Know Still Illegal in Arizona?



In the great state of Arizona, where many people wonder if reasonable minds in the State Legislature have gone on vacation, throwing a potluck lunch or potluck dinner where everyone brings something to a buffet table at social clubs and church groups - can land you on the wrong side of the law.

That’s largely thanks to an unusual legal technicality -one that some Arizonans are calling “ridiculous.”
To celebrate the Full Moon Festival last month the Mesa Urban Garden invited everyone to a potluck in the late afternoon continuing with a celebration for the 4th year of the community garden on First Avenue. Was it illegal?

Or amazing that our elected state legislators can nitpick potluck, a common practice in social circles and at the same fight against  another kind of pot whose medical use was overwhelming supported by a voter initiative? In states where pot [more properly Cannabis ] has been legalized it has generated over $5.4 billion dollars in revenues and more jobs.
According to this report in Vice News/Munchies on 09 Feb 2016 by Alex Swerdloff Arizona’s anti-potluck law came to light when someone at the Apache Junction trailer park had enough of the potluck dinners that were thrown there on the regular. The unnamed potluck-hater discovered that, technically, you can’t legally throw a potluck in Arizona outside of a workplace.
Have no fear, dear readers, the elected representative from Mesa is following the big stink on this: According to Daily Miner, that’s when Representative Kelly Townsend, a Republican from Mesa, heard about the heat on potlucks. She says she initially thought it was “some kind of a joke."

But do not fear, friends: Arizona legislators are on it. This month, an Arizona House of Representatives panel took the first steps toward allowing community potlucks in non-work situations. (Arizona, by the way, still has some of the harshest laws against marijuana in the country.)

Townsend said she finds the potluck prohibitions “goofy.”

Cheers! We got A GEOO from The Governor > NOW Let's Hear A MEOO from the Mayor!

Gotta respect these two guys in Arizona - one started off cold in the ice cream business and the other made his mark in a personal-injury law office. Governor Doug Ducey beat the pants off ex-Mesa Mayor Scott Smith who lost that race for the governor's office, and John Giles was hand-picked to take Smith's seat here in City Hall. Both have now been in office for one year.
Could it be that the Mesa Mayor and the AZ Governor  have different leadership styles with John Giles choosing to run from behind when it comes to economic opportunities?

Time will tell - most likely they will work together focusing now on the goal of job creation in  "unusually uncertain", slow-growth national and global economic forecasts. Yesterday the governor's newsroom had an announcement:

ACA 2.0 To Amplify Arizona’s Job Creation Efforts

February 8, 2016

Governor’s Economic Opportunity Office To Boost Job Creators Large And Small, Expand Innovation, Help Arizonans Get To Work Easier And Faster

http://azgovernor.gov/governor/news/2016/02/aca-20-amplify-arizonas-job-creation-efforts

 

PHOENIX – A stronger focus on data and analytics when it comes to job creation, marketing and regulatory reform is at the heart of legislation introduced today in the Arizona House of Representatives to boost economic development.

Legislation sponsored by Representative Karen Fann will consolidate government offices by establishing the Governor’s Economic Opportunity Office (GEOO) – a one-stop economic development shop that will focus on:

• getting government out of the way of job creators
• provide a direct link between the business community and the workers and capital they need to be successful
• cut down on government overlap to make taxpayer dollars go farther
• create a more unified and effective approach to job attraction and marketing of Arizona.

Readers will note some of the same components in WhatWorksCities [underlined by this blogger for attention and reference]
There are more than a few posts on this blog about that and the struggle the nine-member Leadership Board appears to be having to create the open data portal more than six months after joining.

GEOO will serve as an analytics and strategy team under the Arizona Commerce Authority that will continually analyze:

• how Arizona stacks up against other states,
• identify ways to drive down regulatory and tax burdens, and
• provide real-time data so policy makers and government can move at the speed of business to bring new business to Arizona.

This will help ensure Arizona stays a step ahead of the competition in job attraction and creation.

Notice some other buzzwords in yesterday's press announcement: Ensuring government is open and accountable, and that taxpayer resources are properly spent . . . does the city of Mesa analyze return-on-investment ROI and publish the data and results and the sources?
Your blogger really likes the image to the right for Mesa - readers will note a radiating image generated in all directions.

Just like Mayor John Giles claimed to have created 8,700 jobs here last year, Arizona Republic  reporter Ronald J Hansen published an article  on 03 Feb 2016

Does Ducey deserve credit for jobs in 2015?
Readers are invited to use the underlined link and read what he wrote.

Watch Out For Don't Tread on Me Flags?

Some alerts were given to police for LaVoy Finicum's funeral on Friday, February 5, 2016 by the Utah Statewide Information and Analysis Center—one of the dozens of intelligence-sharing "fusion centers
" around the country that get funds from the Department of Homeland Security—warning that "extremists may utilize such a high profile funeral for media attention or to further ideological belief.
The funeral got little media attention, but the image of this flag did from the fusion center.

The report includes several "visual indicators" to help police determine whether they're dealing with "extremist and disaffected individuals." The fusion center bulletin went on to say that these individuals may adhere to a sovereign citizen ideology, and may not recognize law enforcement as a legitimate authority. 
Although "some or parts of these symbols are representative of patriotic and American revolutionary themes," the report says, "they are often associated with extremism."
The Gadsden flag has most recently gotten associated with several political movements, such as the Tea Party protests. For other groups it is a  more generic patriotic symbol, a famous Revolutionary War banner featuring a coiled rattlesnake and the slogan "Don't Tread on Me."
It can be seen here in downtown Mesa flying high above the classroom building at Heritage Academy, a public charter school at 42 S Center Street across from the Mesa Arts Center.

WhatWorksMesa >> Accelerating the Effective Use Of Data by Governments

Gotta pick up the pace here, Mr.Mayor! -just rousing a few more rabbles to get to the goal.
Back on 05 Aug 2015 the City of Mesa announced it had joined Bloomberg Philanthropies WhatWorksCities - the subject of a number of posts here on MesaZona blog.
Nine members inside City Hall were announced and appointed by City Manager Chris Brady to a Leadership Board on 05 Nov 2015. [subject of another post]

Three months later . . . Ooops, there was some kind of item on the Economic Development Advisory Board's 05 Jan 2016 meeting's agenda for a presentation by Janet Woolum, Performance Manager here in WhatWorksCities - Open Data 
Performance  ("enhance the City's current performance management system", "apply more complex analytics")
Open Data ("transparency" and "unlock data for internal and public use") . . .
yours truly left that meeting not seeing much data or much evidence, not feeling engaged nor how government can be more effective and improve people's lives.

WHAT'S NEXT?

- Continue cross-functional collaborations
• - Increase the capacity to conduct data analytics
• - Support City efforts to use data and evidence to improve city services 

In the effort by yours truly for public service and public information here's some stuff for good governance put out by John Hopkins University Center for Government Excellence, one of the partners in WhatWorksCities dealing with Mesa City Hall to encourage the nine members of the Leadership Board and project manager Janet Woolum to get with the program .

Creating an open data portal?
Go here >> http://labs.centerforgov.org/open-data-portal-requirements/

Here are some questions asked [answers on page link after]
1. What is metadata and why is it important?
2. I’ve been asked to lead my government’s open data initiative. Where do I start?
3. How can I get a better sense of the data our government is currently collecting?
4.What is open data all about? Is it the same as freedom of information/ public records requirements?
5. What is performance analytics?
6. What is the best way to identify another government to benchmark ourselves against?
7. How do we change the culture of our organization to be more data friendly

Readers can find the GovEx answers here

Here are some of the tools that everyone can see:

The Johns Hopkins University Center for Government Excellence has created this getting started guide to assist cities in implementing open data programs in their own communities.
Link >> http://govex.jhu.edu/open-data-getting-started-guide/ 

Many government leaders believe they need a “data-driven culture” to usher in more effective and efficient services to residents. They see managers rely primarily (sometimes exclusively) on gut instinct and experience to guide their work. Data seems trapped in silos. Employees are not using data to inform their work out of reluctance, fear, lack of awareness or training. Tools used to manage and analyze data are intimidating, and very few people understand which tools to reach for first.
What does that really mean? And how do governments make the shift? The Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University (GovEx), a partner in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, created this practical guide to help governments advance open data, analytics and performance management practices by shaping their organizational culture. The guide includes: characteristics of cultures adept with data; diagnostic tips for understanding existing organizational culture; and practical suggestions for influencing that culture.
 http://govex.jhu.edu/changing-culture/

Cities collect and store large amounts of data that is valuable to the public. Until recently, most data was locked away in filing cabinets and only released in response to information requests. An open data program makes city data easily accessible to anyone, at any time, through the internet.
Businesses, residents, visitors, and civil servants expect to have readily available data to aid decision making. Good open data programs meet these expectations while also delivering increased transparency and strong accountability.
By collecting and sharing data, a city can empower constituents to use data to address community concerns and help its own civil servants find innovative solutions to key challenges. Consistently sharing and using data to act on community interests can also lead to a culture of evidence-based decision-making in which data becomes essential for good governance.
https://www.gitbook.com/book/centerforgov/open-data-getting-started/details

Benchmarking is the process of continuously comparing and measuring an organization against its own past performance or comparing its performance to that of another comparable organization. A benchmarking practice provides information that will help an organization take action to improve its own performance. Governments of all levels of capability can leverage benchmarking in their performance management practice. This short guide explains benchmarking using practical examples and provides quick links to helpful benchmarking resources. The guide also describes the related practice of using "proxy measures," which are another useful tool in the performance management toolbox. The guide includes: definitions of commonly used terms; real examples of benchmarking and proxy measures in practice; and a list of useful resources.
https://www.gitbook.com/book/centerforgov/benchmarking/details

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