Successful Community Development Is A Team Effort

Successful Community Development is a Team Effort   We’re continuing our release of lessons learned from the 2018 National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference with this installment focused on alignment and cross-sector partnerships. Our conference program highlighted cross-sector partnerships that demonstrate the power of working together around aligned values and interest to develop more sustainable, creative, and holistic solutions.   In addition to a TED Talk-style series featuring national experts, John Moon led a discussion on our own cross-sector partnership, the Strong, Prosperous, And Resilient Communities Challenge, or SPARCC, and how the partners involved use racial equity as a guiding principle.       Hear from national experts including:   Jenny Ismert, UnitedHealthcare Maurice Jones, Local Initiatives Support Corporation Odetta MacLeish-White, TransFormation Alliance Othello Meadows, Seventy Five North Revitalization Corporation Laura Raymond, Alliance for Community Transit - Los Angeles Roberto Requejo, Elevated Chicago   Stay tuned! More recordings will be released in the weeks ahead. All recordings are posted here as they become available.   The 2018 National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference was sponsored by the Federal Reserve Banks of San Francisco, Atlanta, and Chicago, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Forsee-ABLE + Fore-SEEN > Who the hell knows how this wild saga ends?

Right. No red flags flagging there and no red lights blinking? LOL
Is this the kind of smoking gun that ends in infamy inside the Tacky Tabloid Trump White House?
. . . or the back-pages in the Dustbin of History?

Note:  This content is lifted from axios.com

big thing: When wild conspiracies come to life

Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios

Think back to the wild conspiracy theories that once floated through your head, or the minds of friends and critics of President Trump: collusion with Russia ... Hidden hush money to former lovers ... Shady business dealings that only insiders like fixer Michael Cohen knew of — and they'd never tell. Now, think about July, 2018, as narrated by Axios CEO Jim VandeHei: With millions wondering if Vladimir Putin has damaging info about Trump, and suspecting they have a secret pact, the president does something almost unheard of in history: He meets alone with Putin for two hours. Then, with everyone looking for a public signal of Putin's power over Trump, the president shows so much deference at their press conference you would think he was meeting with the Pope.  Then the tape of Trump talking about pre-election payments to a Playboy model surfaces (on CNN, to boot!). The tape + Trump’s admission that he paid off porn star Stormy Davis = confirmation of what so many thought pre-election happened just as suspected. There was after all a pre-election scramble to silence women — and now it’s on full display for all to see.  Then Cohen, the Trump boot-licker who had claimed he'd take a bullet for the president, indeed takes a bullet — and aims at his sugar daddy, leaking word he wants Robert Mueller to know he will testify that Trump knew of the infamous Russian meeting to discuss dirt on Hillary Clinton. (Trump denies that.) If true — and given Cohen’s jam and reputation, it remains an if — this is the kind of smoking gun that lives in infamy.  Be smart: Who the hell knows how this wild saga ends? But it’s striking how much of it was foreseeable — and foreseen

$500 To Become "A Transformational Leader" in 10 Sessions??

The Next Academy Class Wants YOU!

Register Now! Classes Start August 22!

Cost: $500.00

The Mesa Chamber of Commerce invites you to take the first steps in becoming a transformational leader by attending our upcoming Mesa Chamber Success Leadership Academy. In partnership with the international Chair Academy, the Mesa Chamber is dedicated to delivering exemplary leadership development. The Chair Academy has offered world-class, competency-based, leadership development programs for college and university leaders since 1992. The Mesa Chamber Success Leadership Academy is a comprehensive, 10-month program, consisting of: Monthly training seminars focused on relevant themes, linked to engaging and relevant curriculum Individualized professional development where participants create a development plan to identify performance and leadership goals A mentoring and support program where participants receive ongoing support from an Academy Facilitator, and a mentor of your choosing Reflective practice and journaling to identify and measure progress toward achieving individual leadership goals Surveys to identify and measure growth over the course of the program Small group projects and presentations _____________________________________________________________________ Event Registration >> Redirect here

What is GOAL-BASED INVESTING? What does GOAL-BASED INVESTING mean? GOAL-...

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Published on Jul 27, 2018

What is GOAL-BASED INVESTING? What does GOAL-BASED INVESTING mean? GOAL-BASED INVESTING meaning  GOAL-BASED INVESTING definitionGOAL-BASED INVESTING explanation.

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Source: Wikipedia.org article, adapted under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... license.

 

Goal Based Investing or Goal Driven Investing is an investment methodology where performance is measured by the success of investments in meeting an individual's personal and lifestyle goals.

This differs from conventional investing methodologies, where financial performance is defined as a return against an investment benchmark.

> This approach results in focus of the investment approach shifting from achieving a higher returns approach to the investment, or exceeding the market returns approach to funding a personal financial goals approach.

Goal Based Investing focuses on investing for a household based on their needs and goals, not on their risk tolerance.

It is a similar approach to asset-liability management for insurance companies and liability-driven investment strategy for pension funds but integrates financial planning and investment management which insures that household goals are funded in an efficient manner.

Goal Based investing approach has also been employed by university endowment funds in managing their investments

In Goal Based Investing, the assets are the full set of resources the investor has available, including financial assets, real estate, employment income, social security, etc. while the liabilities are the financial liabilities such as loans, mortgages, etc. in addition to the capitalized value of the household's financial goals and aspirations.

Goal Based Investing takes into account the progress against goals which are categorized as either

essential needs,

lifestyle wants or

legacy aspirations depending on level of importance to an individual or family.

It also helps to prevent rash investment decisions by providing a clear process for identifying goals and choosing investment strategies for those goals.

These goals may include ability to put children in a good school, retiring early, and be able to afford a quality life after retirement.

Some financial advisors recommend having six months spending saved in an emergency fund. This fund helps satisfy the goal of security. A person's goals may be short term security (the savings account), intermediate term portfolio for a child's education expenses and a longer term fund for eventual retirement.

• The emergency fund should be invested in very short term low risk investments.
• The intermediate term fund should be longer and take more risk but only moderately.
• While the long term fund would likely own long dated bonds, stocks and other equity investments.

Circumstances of the individual can satisfy the needs of the various goals or make those needs more aggravated.
For instance,

• A pension benefit or annuity can greatly decrease the need for a retirement fund while a scholarship eligible child can reduce the need for a college fund.
• An employment contract reduces the need for an emergency fund. 
• A chronic illness might increase the need for an emergency fund.

Happy Birthday to Iman: Timeless Beauty

Just taking some time out for a few minutes to wish Iman a Happy Birthday a day late. Ooops!
For your MesaZona blogger it was a close encounter years ago in the whirlwinds of New York City where excitement came on like a tsunami in a totally different decades-ago career at that time: catering. 
The occasion? A birthday party on a very hot day in the backyard of a townhouse on East 65th Street. The pleasure after all these years: meeting and working with Iman.
Time goes by

Need an update? 
https://twitter.com/The_Real_IMAN
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Destination now > Summer Lovin'

Summertime and the living is easy…. We’ve got you covered on all fronts, from going back to the basics with Dare To Bare to Ageless Chic: Lighten Up picks that are forever chic! On the home front check out Aphrochic and get inspired while checking out the return of Nostalgia and Logomania… in a fresh new way. Relax and give it a whirl… La vie en rose!!!

Life is a constant adventure!

Editor-in-Chic 

Taking Rogue Up-A-Notch Retiring Here In Arizona

Here's a take-off tangent to what Rogue Columnist, the multi-talented Jon Talton, (who calls both Seattle and Phoenix home and is still working hard writing real news and fiction) penned for publication two days ago. 
Simply put to start things off, your MesaZona has no idea what the word Retirement  is or what it's supposed to be . . . to some people of a certain age it's Everything Under The Sun.
All the leisure time you want and need after working all your life until the age of 65 with about 20 years to finally enjoy life just before your expiration date rolls around.
What better place to find that fantasy of a good life after work than in Arizona?
However, according to what John Talton has to say it's a different story:

Retiring in Arizona

Blogger Note: Image to the left is from Del Webb's 55+ master-planned development named Sun City. It's inter-changeable with many other age-restricted retirement enclaves that dot The Valley of The Sun everywhere.   

"Arizona is only the 29th "best state to retire in," according to a new survey by Bankrate. The consumer financial services company ranked cost of living, crime, culture, health-care quality, taxes, weather, and "well being." No 1? That would be South Dakota, followed by Utah, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Florida. The Grand Canyon State didn't even make the top 10 in weather.

If this is true, it's bad news for the retirement industry, which has been a lynchpin of the state's economy since Del Webb began Sun City in 1959. Social Security payments accounted for an astounding $1.4 trillion for nearly a million retirees in Arizona as of last year alone — not to mention the savings and other assets they bring from back home.

The survey is highly suspect, of course . . . But that doesn't mean Arizona is quite out of the woods on retirement desirability. 

I suspect retirement is becoming a much more individualized choice than in the past. The stereotype of retiring to a single-family house on a golf course in a sunny place is no longer the default option, at least for the white middle class. . . "

Talton has two options: Seattle and Phoenix

• If he's allowed to retire before he gets underground furniture, he'd probably pick Seattle. He prefers the weather. Washington is a progressive state with a strong safety net for America.
• Retirement could also work for him in Phoenix. Although he dislike the weather for six months of the year, many of his friends are in Phoenix. In hard times, he would hate to be left to the tender mercies of the Kookocracy.

Translate that: AZ is not a progressive state with a strong safety net for America.

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Take some time to think about that: What is Arizona known for? Let's tick-off a few:

Barry Goldwater who will always be saddled with the phrase "Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice" where he lost out in a left-wing bid at the Presidency getting defeated in a landslide by Lyndon Johnson 

Charles Keating and The Keating Five who gave us The Savings-and-Loan Crisis, the last big scare before The Great Recession that Arizona is barely recovering after ten years of plunges in real estate values and more big bank mortgage-financing security scandals .

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, pardoned by Trump after getting convicted of multiple counts-of-crime and abuse of elected office who's now running for election to the United States Senate. 

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Talton goes on to say that "Some boomers no doubt want the suburban championship golf "lifestyle" of their parents . . .

Another challenge: Arizona's ascendency as a retirement destination coincided with the era of pensions, healthcare provided to retirees by corporations, and a tremendous era of wealth-building by the middle class. That's gone.

• Many boomers lack the savings to retire at all (and good luck finding a good job if you're older than 55), and the prospects are even bleaker for the follow-on generations.
• Pensions are mostly gone in the private sector and 401(k)s are highly inferior.

That means the size of the cohort as potential customers for Arizona's retirement industry will be smaller and poorer. Sure, the rich can add a house in north Scottsdale or Paradise Valley to their property portfolios. But the backbone of the state's retirees-bringing-money scheme was a secure middle class. That's gone. The state will face the challenge of ever-larger numbers of elderly poor Hispanics, kept from the ladders of better jobs during their prime working years.

Finally, as this week's record-breaking heat wave makes clear, climate change is going to handle Arizona roughly. In a few decades, "home" back in Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana will look infinitely better than Arizona because of...weather.

[Image to the left insert from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality]

Meanwhile, the Pacific Northwest will be generating its plans for handling climate refugees from the Southwest. That's assuming the Union is even still intact.

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Please take the time (it's just a few minutes) to read John Talton's entire post here

As usual the comments afterwards are enjoyable with civilized points-of-view expressed as well as different experiences that are a refreshing change. 

 

 

Shallow Local Reporting By AZCentral Re: Mesa City Council

Nice to see at least some hyper-local heat from AZ Central reporter Lily Altavena who's just 'getting warm' when it comes to getting down to the real nitty-gritty grime that's tainted this city for generations creating behind-the-scenes closely-connected networks of friends-and-family who control everything inside and outside of City Hall across-the-board.
It's time way overdue to dive deep into polluted politics.
Don't hold your breath. It stinks. Here's just a whiff of the slime on the surface:
If you're like most people who live here in Mesa, you have hardly any idea what's going on inside city government and the forces-that-be really like it that way - not engaged.
Politicians come and go, frequently to other positions 

Councilman says campaign donations make Mesa 'more corrupt' than D.C.
Lily Altavena, Arizona Republic 
Published 12:38 p.m. MT July 25, 2018
Immediately at the start, Lily Altavena makes an open-ended statement,
"The influence campaign donations carry is open to debate."
That certainly sets the stage for another jive at that Trumpian Believe-It-Or-Not scenario . . .
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Later on she characterizes what is a long-missing necessary component of representative democracy and open, transparent and accountable governance - critical and robust informed discussion - as Discord has fermented between Whittaker and other council members for months. 

Whittaker is one of the loudest critics of Mesa's deal to bring Arizona State University to its downtown.  
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It's up to voters to decide whether campaign money matters.  To decide, you really need to get informed on the issues at stake in your lives and future here in Mesa.
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Let's PAUSE right there on the word debate! There's a Primary Election ahead for not just three but four seats on the Mesa City Council. Early voting starts next Wednesday - just a week in advance of Lily Altavena's report. She's not covered in detail any or all the candidates although that's her job. Furthermore, there have been absolutely no public candidate debates organized or scheduled in the public interest to allow us to make an informed decision who to choose . . . We are left in the dark with nothing out there to shed some light on the candidates in this election. We need to mobilize to demand transparency.
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Five days ago your MesaZona blogger posted this post. Here's an excerpt for your interest where links to official City of Mesa sites are included to follow some of the money and view required financial disclosure statements.

22 July 2018

Mobilizing The Public Here In Mesa: Mesa City Council Is More Corrupt Than Congress 

Whoever said that Mesa is boring was trying to trick you into believing a fake Urban Legend that never really existed "Once upon a time . . ."  starting in 1883 or even in the year 2012 when Scott Smith was elected mayor, as the first outsider to get the top elected job inside City Hall. He followed in the long line of succession of 40 mostly Mormon males who have controlled a dominant massive political machine and inter-connected powerful network of friends-and-families who have ruled this city for six generations.
They control almost everything in business, politics and government: Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Education.
They say "It's the Mesa way of doing business" where they all get a cut in their Group-Think Mentality masquerading CORRUPTION.

Let's not get fooled again, folks, with another election in the works playing us all again for fools. Time to wake up and be less stupid, but it surely takes more than that to stop this generations-old system of corruption where few benefit and everyone pays - whether you know it or not.
To the right is the current Mesa City Council in some posed public relations goof photo opp with Jivin' John Giles leading the pack.

A motley crew for sure where just one councilmember, Jeremy Whittaker second from left, is stepping out to publish some things in local politics he finds disturbing, asking at the outset: 
"Should the individuals and organizations whose issues are being voted on by a governing body also be lining the pockets of the politicians who sit on that governing body?" 
QUICK ANSWER: Hell no - that's illegal and punishable. Who's gonna get these corrupt parasites. . . It's up to you, dear readers to demand action if these bad actors get nailed.

Read more of the post on this blog site from 22 July 2018 >> here
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The entire AZ Central article from two days ago can be viewed here. You are encouraged to read it for some of the reactions by the two Mesa City Councilmembers cited in the financial disclosures for campaign contributions that include un-named developers (see links below). Most of these contributions involved actions to approve multi-million dollar speculative real estate gambling on downtown that get leveraged around a tentative ASU project. ASU already has a campus in East Mesa, outside of Tempe where it's devoured downtown. 

One current one-term state senator Mesa Mega-Millionaire conservative Mormon Republican Bob Worsley appeared back in February in front of the Mesa City Council after public anger was aroused over two things: his $20-million chump-change lowball buy-out of more than ten Main Street commercial properties in newly-formed holding companies and a speculative gamble on a $130-Million mixed-use proposal atop a city-owned parking lot for 'upscale luxury living' in the downtown distressed neighborhood.
He was joined and supported by former U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon (who owns a public relations/lobbying company with his wife who works at Banner Healthcare). 
Salmon snagged a high-paying job before retiring from public office with ASU as Vice-President of Government Affairs two years ago. 
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The stage for all this in next month's Primary Election was all set two years ago - and way before - and it runs deep about 35 years.          
Credit goes to Lily Altavena for this:

"Developers, zoning attorneys and others with financial stakes in growth are among the most common contributors to city council campaigns. In the last campaign finance filing period, The Arizona Republic found that at least 44 percent of individual contributions to Mesa City Council candidates are from those involved in development.  

Donors include developers chosen by council for a massive office park project on city-owned land, a state senator redeveloping a swath of properties along Mesa's Main Street and dairy farmers looking to rezone and sell their land for development 

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In addition, please note just one example of a powerful group necessary 'to grease-the-skids' : ZONING ATTORNEYS. Altavena just puts her finger on that 

". . . Tempe takes campaign finance transparency further than other Valley cities, requiring candidates to clearly mark donations from lobbyists, or anyone paid to influence city policy or decisions, such as a developer-paid zoning attorney. . . "
Blogger Note: Here in Mesa on the Planning & Zoning Board Jessica Sarkassian is closely entwined with a group of these