Some of those nearby Rabble-Rousers at Red Mountain Ranch living next to a 132-acre pending land auction by the City of Mesa are rightfully raising a ruckus. Walsh calls them and anyone with a brain "critics" of the deal - Citizens who are exercising their rights after Mesa City Manager Chris tried once again to fast-track one more real estate trick and got caught at a recent City Council meeting. . . .just another 'Pandora's Box' for Brady.
> This time-around it's Jivin' John Giles [the mayor] who joins in struggling to salvage another potential wreck in their public relations campaigns
> This time around-and-around they got two more critics - at the city level Economic Development Director Bill Jabjiniak and one more in opposition, Corrine Nystrom, Falcon Field's airport director who stated development plans called for commercial development in the air corridor.
> This time around-and-around-and-around: one more 2-part problem
1. much higher than typical costs associated with the installation of water and sewer lines
2. an over optimistic projection on the land value, degraded by $10M now
What is missing in Walsh's slamming of the land auction is lost in the second paragraph when he relates its 'stormy history' without naming the developer company this time around.* (see below).
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However, Walsh tore into the public part and start of this contentious pending sale, more than two months ago when during a city council meeting, Mesa resident and former candidate Verl Farnsworth ripped officials’ plan to auction 132 acres of pristine desert. The move just didn’t sit well with Farnsworth – who accused the city of betraying a promise to residents that the property would become a park someday. . . According to the report, the city planned to post the land sale on its website on Jan. 16 and hold the auction March 7 - ten days ago.
The auction has been rescheduled for March 21st.
Mesa to auction prime piece of pristine desert
Here's the link for more details > http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news
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Another LACK OF TRANSPARENCY in this entire scheme is revealed in yesterday's report.
More jive-talk from Mayor John Giles and more double-speak from City Manager Chris Brady. We are indeed so blessed when the subject of unused city assets gets addressed by the mayor.
East Valley Tribune-Mar 17, 2019
Critics question why there were no public hearings before the Mesa City Council decided to auction it after the city paid $4 million in 1998 and reserved it for a ...
Click-Bait > READ MORE USING THE ABOVE HYPERLINK
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Walsh does manage to extract some quotes from the two previous town managers,
Mike Hutchinson and Charles Luster, who thought that box was sealed for eternity 20 years ago. Instead it's opened a whole new can of worms over actions taken by the current City Manager - a joint defense agreement of some kind that's rekindled a stormy past.
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"We'd love to pay off some bond debt** early, . . I am trying to be fiscally responsible"
. . . for that he earns another Pinocchio!
[who's counting. Hehe]
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** BOND DEBT Last time it was AZ State Senator Bob Worsley who got a $100M give-away for real estate speculation here in downtown whose future private wealth-creation was riding on taxpayer-funding for new construction of an ASU building. With Mesa taxpayer-approval for another debt bond obligation in the 2018 General Election, Worsley could leverage his own private $20M "gamble" while at the same time holding public elected office
