A conversation with the Aspen Institute president and CEO Dan Porterfield on the lessons Mayor Garcetti has learned from running the second largest city in the country, from infrastructure and housing, to raising the minimum wage and making community college free. The mayor's leadership has had an extraordinary impact on national and international stages, including helping rally mayors from across America to adopt the Paris Climate Agreement and leading the first National Day of Action on Immigration.
For the self-described 'non-partisan' kind-of-guy that the mayor calls himself, conservative Mesa Mormon Republican Mayor John Giles is no doubt thrilled and excited at the prospect of creating more wealth for his friends-and-family - the FOG - who stand to capitalize and enrich themselves in risky rampant real estate speculation to the tune of $300-400 millions of dollars here in downtown Mesa.
Looks like he's added up the potential windfall in unrealized capital gains that his friends [FOG=Friends of Giles] might benefit from personally if he and City Manager Chris Brady can only somehow snowball the City Council into approving deals with private developers and trick the voters and taxpayers into approving behind-the-scenes profiteering with little or no public benefits. He's starting to lose control ...
That's in spite of the huge staff in three departments (whose salaries are paid by taxpayers)
for his own Mayor's Office of Public Information,
for the City of Mesa Newsroom Mesa Now headed up by Kevin Christopher and Steven Wright
for the Mesa City Council's Public Relations/Media Office headed by Randy Policar.
That's all 'insider reporting' paid for by taxpayers. Outside of City Hall there are at least two corporate-owned media who publish news that's sometimes Spoon-Fed by the insiders to their staff who write 'the news': One is Lily Altavena. Another is Jim Walsh. Now there's more balanced writing in both The Arizona Republic and East Valley Tribune. The heat is for both the current Primary Election and questions put on the Ballot for the November 2018 General Election where taxpayers can vote to reject or to approve more debt for pet projects to benefit private real estate speculators closely connected with the mayor and his friends inside and outside City Hall
This from Jim Walsh where transparency is a key word - IMAGINE that here in Mesa!! WHAT'S THE REACTION?
First-term Mesa Councilman Jeremy Whitaker has caused a furor with some of his colleagues by accusing them of corruption for accepting campaign donations from developers whose projects come before Council. Some of those developers also contributed to his campaign in 2016.
Mesa councilman stirs colleagues' anger with accusations
Image credit: Kimberly Carrillo/EVT
That neophyte 'wild card' and independent, elected to the Mesa City Council in 2014 representing District 2, has consistently challenged the city's financing practices while at the same time vehemently opposing and clashing with John Giles over taxpayer-funded $100-million to finance one ASU building downtown and other projects based on public debt financing for special interests based on questionable projections provided by the city.
You can read the entire report: Jim Walsh/East Valley Trib 29 July 2018
_________________________________________________________________________________ Blogger Notes: 1. You can read all the hits and takes published on this blog about John Giles and Jeremy Whittaker by using the SEARCH BOX on this site https://MesaZona.blogspot.com 2. BTW Thank you for over 195,000 Page-Views _________________________________________________________________________
This from Lily Altavena yesterday about theconfusing mess inside "The Bag of Goodies" packaged by Mesa City Manager Chris Brady and his Office of Management & Budget that have been carefully crafted in a confusing conundrum in not just the six BALLOT QUESTIONS but it's now ballooned with two more for another $300 Million Dollars in Public Debt Bond service obligations financed on the back of taxpayers: How to deal with? It's easy for Mesa taxpayers to avoid getting played for fools and tricked again: JUST VOTE NO on all 8. They want to make U confused by stacking the ballot
Lily Altavena takes a different tack into the headwinds, going back to some non-relevant episode when people were less smart. At the same time she wants to tell you what YOU NEED-TO-KNOW IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT: "Mesa is gearing up for a stacked November ballot with eight local questions totaling more than a half of a billion dollars in school and municipal asks.
The hefty amount raises some speculation over voter fatigue, with the possibility that conservative Mesa voters could tick "no" the entire way down their ballot. . . "
Mesa is the third-largest city in Arizona and growing. The city's economic development department estimates it will grow to more than 534,000 residents by 2022, ...
THAT'S THE COVER STORY in a not-so-new image from Habitat Metro's Partnership with AZ State Senator Bob Worsley, a conservative Mesa Mormon Republican Mega-Millionaire who's now gambling million$ of private money in rampant real estate speculation with his cohorts on the Mesa City Council for their own wealth creation.The Mesa Chamber of Commerce is desperately seeking advertisers to pay for its Make-Believe Make-Over of 'The Old Donut-Hole' and the radical transformation of the distressed area called downtown into Mesa: A Vibrant City. Now and Tomorrow.
Stakeholders Prospectus 2018.
Take a look at the rendering above - it's all not-to-scale reverse-perspective of what is Worsley's worst scenario: a proposed 15-story [go ahead count them] upscale luxury Hotel and "above market-rate" apartments in an alleyway south of Main Street looking in the wrong direction! Along with ASU lobbyist Matt Salmon, Worsley finally came out in public, meeting anger from the public over his behind-the scenes real estate deals last year.
To the left in sunglasses you see Worsley's partner W. Tim Sprague who took ten years to finish a Habitat Metro Phoenix hotel project Found:Re in an already existing building! Then there's Mesa Mayor John Giles and two partners in Caliber Private Wealth who have low-balled a buy-out of ten Main Street commercial properties in "Buy-and-Hold" and "Wait-and-See" holding companies and LLCs
What are they waiting for? A campaign by city officials backed-up by a slick public relations campaign - A Grab-Bag of Goodies - to trick taxpayers to deliver capital gains for their investors if and when voters approve the deals made by city officials to finance real estate spec schemes on the backs of more public debt tax burdens for projects with little substantiated public benefits.
It's Compass Time! Time for Transparency so readers of this blog can see through The FOG when the City of Mesa plays taxpayers for Fools. They're helped by mainstream media - one of which is The Arizona Republic that publishes the "good news" . . . Who's the partner with the Mesa of Commerce for anyone who wants to advertise? Kevin Qualls from the Arizona Republic is the Chamber Partner coordinating advertisers for the upcoming Compass.
Some transparency is in order here with "all the good news" that Mesa Mayor John Giles wanted about some $300-$400 Million-Dollar-Deals that were reported in The Arizona Republic. His actions were rejected two years ago. Now there are questions by the public and opposition by certain members on the Mesa City Council.
What's the scheme to trick taxpayers? This one building projected to cost Mesa residents and taxpayers $100 Million dollars when ASU can pay for this itself. Mesa City Manager Chris Brady has proposed and the Mesa City Council has approved all kinds of increases in city-wide utilities consumptions fees/charges, sales and transaction taxes, and other hikes. Taxpayers can reject these in November. _________________________________________________________________________
This year's Edition:
Circulation: 25,000
• 20,000 inserted into subscriber copies of The Arizona Republic within the City of Mesa
• 5,000 copies distributed to the Mesa Chamber
• PLUS, $20,000 in targeted media value promotion the COMPASS magazine and
The Verge and Curbed have teamed up to build the home of the future. Join host Grant Imahara as he examines the renewed trend of prefabricated modular home construction. Subscribe: http://goo.gl/G5RXGs
Master Wu started making neon signs in the ’80s and has been filling Hong Kong’s streets with bright neon signs ever since. But recently, Master Wu has seen his business slow down as brighter-burning and more energy-efficient LED signs emerge. In addition to getting fewer requests, Hong Kong’s iconic neon landscape is also losing thousands of signs per year, ushering in the end of the city’s neon era.
As Hong Kong’s neon lights start to fade, I spent some time with Master Wu at his neon shop, where he showed me how he makes neon signs, and took a look at Hong Kong’s changing cityscape.
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.
Yep it's back-to-school time - here's a monthly morning (yeah @ 06:45 a.m.) talk show with nothing more than 'talk' produced by city-owned and taxpayer-subsized Mesa Channel 11 that's 'the brainchild' of Sally Jo Harrison, Prez/CEO of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. According to the self-description it discusses a variety of topics with hilarious one-liners from host and veteran valley comedian, Mark Cordes." < WHO? After some financial scandals that forced the ex-Super Cowan out of office sent on a mission in an undetermined location Mesa has a new Superintendent of Public Schools from Park City UT. There's also a new President @ MCC after some shake-ups, Rich Haney.
Note Location Change: Mesa Community College Performing Arts Center1520 S Longmore Mesa, AZ 85202
Produced by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, "Mesa Morning Live" is a monthly morning talk show that discusses a variety of topics with hilarious one-liners from host and veteran valley comedian, Mark Cordes.
The World Belongs To Those Who Show Up The show features a diverse lineup of local, state and national guests including community leaders, politicians, celebrities, athletes, local businessmen and women, and more. A regular segment each month is Mark's highly anticipated "Top Ten" which includes humorous topics such as "Top Ten Ways to Balance Arizona's Budget" or "Top Ten ways to avoid weigh gain over the Holidays" or simply based on current events.
Your MesaZona blogger gets a kick from finding an author like Cyrus Farivar who can write open-ended material like this article that appeared in ArsTechnica yesterday:
Facebook: We’re not asking for financial data, we’re just partnering with banks
Spox: "We're not using this information beyond enabling these types of experiences."
Cyrus is a Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica, and is also a radio producer and author. His latest book, Habeas Data, about the legal cases over the last 50 years that have had an outsized impact on surveillance and privacy law in America, is out now from Melville House. He is based in Oakland, California.
There are other open-ended opportunities to see how partnering might work is some recent examples
________________________________________________________________________________This might be good hyper-local example of "Partnering" or public private partnerships. This one is Mesa Mayor John Giles with the ASU mascot Sparky. It was a public relations gimmick that flopped big time when taxpayers realized the trick and rejected the questionable agreement - In essence, we’re talking about the potential of privatizing profits for real estate spectaors and socializing losses whenever the government enters into such agreements — to the detriment of we the taxpayers.
Huge office campus planned for Mesa's Riverview District .... jobs for our residents," said Mesa Mayor John Giles in a statement. Union is also near Waypoint, a 426,000-square-foot office park Lincoln and Harvard partnered to ...
