2 More Mesa Mormon Republicans Called To Testify in Gary Pierce Bribery Trial

It's getting very curious to follow a series of clues dropped by AZ Cap Media reporter Howie Fischer who's covering a grand jury trial now going on in Phoenix that started on Wednesday, June 1, 2018 against a former Mesa legislator and a Pinal County utility company that involves charges of bribery and fraud. There are also charges that Pierce sought to buy some land in east Mesa . . .
(Hang on to that clue for just a moment . . . save it for later)
The indictment mentions "an unindicted co-conspirator" . . .

Let's see if you can continue to follow all these clues:
. . .  Who happens to be the former wife of lobbyist Jim Norton, who's firm employed Sherry Pierce, Gary Pierce's wife . . .
Ashley Adams, represents Sherry Pierce . . .
ACC bribery trial includes angry ex-wife
Originally published June 1, 2018 @ 5:56 am
The government's theory is that Johnson (owner of Johnson Utilities that provides services to Queen Creek and San Tan Valley) used lobbyist Jim Norton to funnel funds to Gary Pierce, not directly but by having Norton's wife provide a $3,500-a-month contract to Sherry Pierce, a contract that Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Galati said did not actually require she do any work . . . Adams intends to call former Congressman Matt Salmon and current Congressman Andy Biggs, for whom she did work.
The defense lawyers also contend that there was a legitimate reason for Johnson to not only contract with Kelly Norton, but to insist she, in turn, contract with Sherry Pierce. They said Johnson had an interest in issues in the San Tan Valley area of Pinal County and Sherry Pierce had political contacts there, allowing her to do things like look for a Mormon Republican to run for the Board of Supervisors.
WHY MORMON?

"Who better to be hired as a contractor than somebody who knows everybody in the Republican Party?” Adams asked. . . And to buttress Sherry Pierce's credentials, Adams intends to call former Congressman Matt Salmon and current Congressman Andy Biggs, for whom she did work.
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Blogger Note: "Revolving-door" former U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon (who has a public relations firm with his wife), resigned from office before the end of his term to make way for Andy Biggs, the former President of AZ Senate, to succeed him. He announced at the same time he was hired by ASU (as a lobbyist and influence-peddler) as Vice-President of Government Affairs.
< He's seen in the image to the left.

Matt Salmon appeared with AZ State Bob Worsley, another Mesa Mormon Republican, a Mega-Millionaire who defeated the infamous SB1070 Russell Pearce, who also "knows everybody". He came out in public at a Mesa City Council as the private real estate speculator [mixing up trust in public office and gains in private profits] who's gambling what he says is $20M on a $130M "Upscale-Living" 15-story 75-room luxury hotel and 75 "above-market"-rent apartments in a mixed-used project with Habitat Metro atop a parking lot in downtown Mesa.

Mesa city officials and the Mesa City Council passed a Memorandum of Understanding and approved a development agreement fairly quickly. As you can see, also, Worsley's speculative proposal appears on the front cover of Compass Magazine obviously endorsed by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce as a Stakeholders Prospectus 2018

One of the partners in this speculative project is Kent Lyons, his campaign manager, whose registered at least 8 more holding companies for recent property transactions. In Snowflake, AZ Worsley bought up two biomass energy utility plants with 10-year contracts to supply SRP and APS, along with 7,000 acres of land. Another 40,000 acres in Arizona and New Mexico is controlled by NZLegacy. 

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More clues . . . Are you still following the trail?
" . . . Galati told jurors that Pierce was interested in buying some land in east Mesa. Galati said there was a scheme being cooked up to have Jim Norton buy the property and have Johnson pay for it. . . . Galati said part of the reason it didn't happen was because Kelly Norton balked, saying it would endanger her real estate license. And in the end, he said, the bank wouldn't accept the offer.
But Patricia Gitre, Gary Pierce's attorney, said there was never any discussion about Johnson buying the property for her client.
"It's a made-up story,” Adams said of the whole government's case. 
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RE: Land is east Mesa/Pinal County

At one time, the City of Mesa owned an 11,000-acre "Water Farm" in Pinal County, pledging to sell that in pieces with an estimated value of $100 Million dollars to use the proceeds to pay for a baseball sports complex Wrigleyville West instead of asking Mesa taxpayers to approve a bond issue 2012 . . . that didn't happen.
In early April 2018  a new 14,000+-acre land development bordering east Mesa and going all the way south to Casa Grande was announced as Saints Holdings.
Re: The Question Why Mormon?
This map might explain that



 





  

 

The Rolling Stones > Gimme Shelter (Live) - OFFICIAL PROMO

That Deja Vu Feeling

Published on Nov 27, 2012

All-Time Views: 10,120,168

The official promo for the Rolling Stones' 1998 single 'Gimme Shelter', a live version of their 1969 studio recorded release.

Investing in OZones For Wealth Creation . . . and/or To Narrow The Inequality Gap??

Don't know about you, dear readers, but how much more commentary can we take on here in The Old Donut-Hole we call home? It's all been spelled-out over-and-over again to heed the warnings and see the results and outcomes here in downtown Mesa. . . .it's all getting played-out here now where two words are missing in the massive make-over from an inflow of mostly-Mormon millions in investments from Salt Lake City for wealth creation.
However, two words appear to be missing in Mesa: inclusive and equitable.
Here in the desert of The Valley of The Sun it's not likely that the rising salty tide will float everybody's boats (to borrow a phrase from former Mesa City Manager Mike Hutchinson.)

In a recent article by Jim Walsh in the East Valley Tribune last weekend, John Giles is quoted as saying "he isn't the first mayor to go to Salt Lake for investments . . ." He's got that right - he is the 40th in the line-of-succession when he ascended into office starting off in LDS Stakes as you can see memorialized in this bronze plaque mounted on stone >
(For those inclined to walk around the sidewalks here in The Old Donut-Hole it's in front of what used to be City Hall now the Arizona Museum of Natural History on Macdonald St)
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Invest In Cities To Narrow The Inequality Gap

Roger Trapp , Contributor Oct 31, 2017 @ 05:10 PM

"As with the U.K.'s decision to leave the E.U., the rise of Donald Trump and the rest of it, there is no shortage of commentaries on the growing problems in cities around the world. What there is much less of is realistic proposals for dealing with the issues that have given rise to these phenomena. Fortunately, when it comes to cities, there is Richard Florida, director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and author of The Rise of the Creative Class, which explained how a new generation of people was reviving ailing industrial centres. Now, he is explaining how that trend is, among other factors, helping to intensify the issues confronting many urban centres. The New Urban Crisis is subtitled "Gentrification, Housing Bubbles, Growing Inequality and What We Can Do About It", and, while Florida's analysis of how we got here is unsurprisingly insightful, it is that last bit that is crucial. . . 

As a man who has made understanding the workings of cities his life's work, Florida is in no doubt about the importance of the issue. He writes: "The very same clustering force that generates economic and social progress also increasingly divides us demographically, culturally and politically. Winner-take-all urbanism means that a few big winners capture a disproportionate share of the spoils of innovation and economic growth, while many more places stagnate or fall further behind. . . 
Nor does the issue end there. Florida explains how the breadth of the crisis helps us understand why, even a decade after the financial crisis, economic anxiety remains a real feature of many people's lives and indeed continues to rise. The fact that is now the suburbs rather than inner cities where poverty is most prevalent only underlines the extent to which middle-class dreams of a better life have been dashed in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere. Florida suggests that the urban crisis is "a big part of the reason why the economies of the advanced nations have been unable to recover fully from the economic crisis and remain mired in what some call 'secular stagnation'."
Acknowledging that some economists favor a New Deal-style stimulation approach to invest in infrastructure with the aim of recreating the middle-class jobs that appeared in the U.S. and elsewhere after the Second World War, Florida warns against a piecemeal approach. "For infrastructure to really put the economy back on its feet, it must be part of a broader strategy for clustered, urbanised growth," he writes . . . . . . he accepts that summoning up the political will to confront the crisis will not be easy.

Nevertheless, he believes that - although the task is huge - it is not insurmountable. He calls for cities and urbanism to be put at the very centre of the agenda for economic prosperity and proposes a strategy for "a more productive urbanism". . .

• Make clustering work for us and not against us
• Invest in the infrastructure for density and growth
• Build more affordable rental housing
• Turn low-wage service jobs into middle-class work
• Tackle poverty by investing in people and places
• Lead a global effort to build prosperous cities
• Empower cities and communities

There are clearly roles for political, civic and business leaders in all of these.
But it is in the last that there is perhaps the greatest leadership challenge.

 READ MORE > Forbes Editors Pick 

(Image of Mesa Mayor John Giles from Twitter while he was in Washington DC recently for a get-together about infrastructure at The White House)
Did he have a revelatory moment?
. . . mebbe________________________________________________________________

THE BOOK
Our cities drive innovation and growth, but they also propel us into housing crises and give rise to ever-greater inequality, as the super-rich displace the well-off, and the workers who run our essential services are ghettoised and pushed out to the suburbs. There is a New Urban Crisis, and it is undermining the foundations of our society.
In this bracingly original work of research and analysis, leading urbanist Richard Florida demonstrates how our cities are evolving in the twenty-first century, for good and for ill. From the world's superstar metropolises to the urban slums of the developing world, he shows how the crisis touches all of us, and sets out how we can make our cities more inclusive, ensuring prosperity for all.

- https://oneworld-publications.com/the-new-urban-crisis-hb.html

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Let's Take A Look At THE WEALTHIEST ZIPCODES Here in Mesa

Here's a good example of a picture telling you a story, that's quite the opposite from a new official page named Opportunity Zones from the City of Mesa's Office for Economic Development. Please scroll down after this inserted image from City Data where the wealthiest zipcodes are red  and note how they tend to cluster in certain areas where you can easily see that over time Mesa has self-segregated based on income:
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Opportunity Zones - NEW!

Opportunity Zones are a federal program designed to spur community investment by providing tax benefits to investors. The City of Mesa has 11 census tracts that have been designated Opportunity Zones by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The map below highlights these tracts within the city boundaries.

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MISSION

It is the mission of the Office of Economic Development (Mesa OED) to enhance Mesa’s economy, creating quality jobs and increasing per capita income in order to improve the quality of life for Mesa’s residents.  LEARN MORE about our Mission 

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The Arizona Governor’s Office and the Arizona Commerce Authority worked with local governments, tribal communities, and counties to decide which census tracts would be submitted for consideration by the federal government. As of April 9, all of Arizona’s 168 submitted tracts became officially designated as Opportunity Zones.

For tax benefits to be received by an Opportunity Zone investor, two qualifications must be met:

	The investment must be made via a Qualified Opportunity Fund. An Opportunity Fund is an investment vehicle that is set up as either a partnership or corporation for investing in eligible property that is located in an Opportunity Zone. The investment must be derived from a gain in another investment and transferred into an Opportunity Fund within 180 days of realizing the gain.
This then allows for the investors to receive reductions on capital gains taxes relative to the years of their investment in an Opportunity Zone after 5 years.
	If the investment is held for a minimum of five years the taxable amount of the capital gains reinvested is reduced by 10%. After holding the investment for at least 10 years the taxable amount of capital gains reinvested is reduced by 15% and no tax is owed on the appreciation.
	For more information on Opportunity Zones, please visit the Economic Innovation Group’s Fact Sheet at: http://eig.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Opportunity-Zones-Fact-Sheet.pdf/. You can also contact Marc Valenzuela, Economic Development Specialist at marc.valenzuela@mesaaz.gov.

 

 

Link > http://www.mesaaz.gov/business/economic-development/incentives-programs/opportunity-zones 

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Who is Marc Valenzuela?

It certainly looks like that after the REJECTION by Mesa taxpayers on a ballot item Yes1Mesa in the General Election 2016 to transform downtown Mesa into a satellite ASU campus, plans were in the making to push for that proposal again with the hiring of a new employee who worked inside ASU prior to June 2017 when he got hired here.

He was a new employee hired last year in June and introduced at one of the early morning meetings of the city's Economic Development Advisory Board.

[noted in earlier post on this site or you can do a word search on the published Minutes link on the landing page for the EDAB]

"Marc Valenzuela joined the City of Mesa’s Office of Economic Development in June 2017 as an Economic Development Specialist.

Prior to his work with Mesa, Marc worked for Arizona State University serving as the Economic Development Project Manager. . . Before moving to Arizona, Marc held several positions in economic development and government relations in San Diego, California.
Marc is a graduate of Arizona State University with a master’s degree in Public Administration and bachelor’s degree in Public Service and Public Policy. . . "

To find out more about Marc Valenzuela you can go > http://www.mesaaz.gov/business/economic-development/about-us/staff/marc-valenzuela

Aw-Aw > What if Boeing Machinists Organized A Union Here in Mesa?

Boeing manufacturing and MRO operations are one of the biggest employers in the city, with over 4,500 jobs and salaries paid. . . could these be the 'high-value and high-quality' good jobs that Mesa's Office of Economic Development Director 'Quick Jab' Bill Jabjiniak has been talking about lately to refresh Mesa's brand as a new magnet for the rapidly-growing AeroSpace and AeroDefense industries here in the East Valley?
Could this really work in a right-to-work state like Arizona?
Due to changes in tax incentives and subsidies in Seattle, plans were announced earlier to re-located 300 employees to a more favorable environment in workforce wages. 
Boeing machinists in South Carolina vote to form union

"Boeing South Carolina said Thursday that its flight line machinists at the Charleston Dreamliner complex have voted to form a union.

The machinists voted 104 to 65 in favor of the union drive, with the rest not voting, the International Association of Machinists (IAM) labor organizers said in a video posted to Twitter.
In a statement posted online, Boeing South Carolina said: "While we are deeply disappointed with the result and are appealing, we will come together as we continue to deliver on our customer commitments."
The win for the union, which includes 178 machinists at the facility, gives the IAM a foot in the door at a Boeing factory where it has twice before failed to get enough support in larger factory-wide campaigns to unionize workers.
Boeing claims the IAM drive to unionize only a small group of machinists is illegal and vowed to continue fighting.
 "Boeing continues to believe that this micro-unit is prohibited by federal law," the jet maker said in a statement. . .
Link > South Carolina Biz Journal
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If readers would like to find out what subsidies the City of Mesa offers to the $3-Billion Dollar Boeing Corporation you can look at this resource >  

REAL OZone News: Ozone High Pollution Advisory issued for Friday, June 1

Right: Your MesaZona blogger had to giggle-to-himself about a Guest Opinion posted online in the Sunday Edition of the East Valley Tribune when Jordan Rose and Jim Belfiore fore-shortened and abbreviated Opportunity Zones with Ozone to advertise for free their expertise and services for wealth creation by big-money investors gambling millions to make unrealized or deferred capitals gains . . . here's what Ozone is from the Maricopa County Air Quality Department TO PROMOTE CLEANER AND HEALTHIER AIR 

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has issued an Ozone High Pollution Advisory for Friday, June 1, 2018. WOOD BURNING RESTRICTIONS LEAF BLOWING RESTRICTIONS AVOID USING  OFF-HIGHWAY VEHICLES

Restrictions apply . . . Ozone: Ground level ozone is formed by a chemical reaction that needs heat from sunlight, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds [VOCs] to form. The months of April through September make up our Valley’s longer-than-normal "ozone season." "High Pollution Advisory" or "HPA" means the highest concentration of pollution may exceed the federal health standard. Active children, adults and people with lung disease such as asthma should reduce prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion. Maricopa County employers enlisted in the Travel Reduction Program are asked to activate their HPA plans on high pollution advisory days. "Health Watch" means the highest concentration of pollution may approach the federal health standard. Unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion during a health watch.

Here In The Nation - And Here in Mesa, Arizona - We Have A Problem ...It's Called Affordable Housing

That's right - where in any mention of a massive make-over that can transform downtown Mesa do you see the phrase affordable housing.
There are two more missing words: equitable and inclusive.
By all recent reports about "The Old Donut-Hole" it looks like Mesa is becoming not more inclusive, but less inclusive.
Private real estate developers have in effect stolen the platform of LISC Phoenix where Our Future is On The Line.
That might be the bottom-line from impact investing fostered by recent  changes in tax acts unless people who live here in Mesa get more active and engaged to make sure affordable housing for the middle-class is one of the outcomes of new opportunities for all.

Outside of Mesa - The Bubble We Live In - this is being called  a crisis and a catastrophe.
Here inside the Ozone it's almost invisible to some.
This blog started out in February 2015 highlighting initiatives in affordable housing: Encore On First, the Gorman Company's Escobedo at Verde Vista, and Community Development Partner's El Rancho Del Arte, most recently with the opening in June 2018 of Phase II El Rancho Del Sol.

Three years of progress in building affordable innovative housing along the line of Valley Metro LightRail.
< Now nothing more to show.
Why is that the reality in the new housing market boom?
Some of the reasons and roots are presented in the featured well-researched report written by Bryce Covert that appeared last Friday, May 24th in The Nation.
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Blogger Note: Our city of Mesa has some of its own unique roots going back for at least six generations to the LDS pioneers sent from Salt City, and resistance from some sectors  . . . but let's leave that aside for now
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 The Deep, Uniquely American Roots of Our Affordable-Housing Crisis

Nearly half of all renters can’t afford rent, and over half a million Americans are homeless on any given night. How did we get here?

By Bryce Covert 

". . . it is ... a harbinger of trends that are under way everywhere in a country in which rents are increasing while incomes stagnate. . . It’s a problem in every major city and in every state. . . Today, there’s a deficit of more than 7.2 million rental homes inexpensive enough for the lowest-income people to afford, . . "

How did we get here?

Read more >

https://www.thenation.com/article/give-us-shelter/