REMOTE ZOOM > The Mesa City Council Chambers Remain Closed To The Public . . .

It is the first "Study Session" in the month of June, six months into the calendar year 2021 and the last month of this Fiscal Year that ends at the end of June.

Like they say there's a lot "to wrap-up" in these uncertain times.

Time is of the essence to get approved by the deadline involving decisions to-be-made and approvals by the Mesa City Council how to allocate and spend millions of dollars in proposed budgets for FY2021/FY2022.

Everything is jammed-up on both the Tentative and Final Agendas for today's Study Session, for Monday June 7th's Study Session at 5:15 p.m., for the Regular Meeting the same day at 5:45 p.m. - that includes A PUBLIC HEARING on 8 Ordinances - and for A SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING scheduled to start at 5:50 p.m.

HOW CAN "THE BRADY BUNCH" SQUEEZE IT ALL IN?

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Here's the most recent thing thrown-in to everything else:

NOT ONE BUT TWO MAJOR ITEMS

Just uploaded this on Wed 02 June about 5:00 p.m.

PLEASE NOTE RECENT ADDITIONS: 06.07.2021

> SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING @ 5:50 p.m.   Printed on 06.01.2021

City Council City of Mesa Meeting Agenda - Final 

Council Chambers 57 E. First Street 

Mayor John Giles 

Vice Mayor Jennifer Duff - District 4 

Councilmember Mark Freeman - District 1 

Councilmember Julie Spilsbury - District 2 

Councilmember Francisco Heredia - District 3 

Councilmember David Luna - District 5 

Councilmember Kevin Thompson - District 6 

Monday, June 7, 2021 5:50 PM 

Council Chambers 

SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING

Roll Call

(City Council members participate in person or by electronic means.) 

ITEM 1 

Conduct a public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2021-22 Budget and the proposed Fiscal Year 2021-22 Secondary Property Tax Levy, and take action on the Fiscal Year 2021-22 Budget 

• 21-0585 A public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2021-22 Budget and the proposed Fiscal Year 2021-22 Secondary Property Tax Levy. (materials attached) 1-a 

File #:

21-0585

Type:

Public Hearing

Status:

Agenda Ready

In control:

City Council

On agenda:

6/7/2021

Title:

A public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2021-22 Budget and the proposed Fiscal Year 2021-22 Secondary Property Tax Levy. (materials attached)

Attachments:

1. Council Report, 2. 5.21.21 Presentation

The Council Report (Draft only) is 7 pages
City Council Report
Date: June 21, 2021
To: City Council
Through: Michael Kennington, Deputy City Manager/Chief Financial Officer Irma Ashworth, Finance Director
From: Ryan Wimmer, Treasurer
Subject: Fiscal Year 2021-22 Secondary Property Tax Rate and Levy Purpose
This action approves the levy of a secondary property tax on taxable property in the City of Mesa for fiscal year (FY) 2021-22. The proposed FY 2021-22 secondary property tax levy and tax rate are: Levy = $45,163,931 Rate = $1.1319 per $100 of taxable value 2020 Election In November of 2020, Mesa voters approved a $100 million general obligation bond question to fund transportation-related projects in the City. An additional property tax levy of $3.5 million is needed to pay the debt service on the new bonds once all are issued. This levy is 8% greater than the FY 2020-21 levy (see Figure 1 below). Because the value of taxable property in the City increased by 7% (rounded from 6.8%) in FY 2021-22, the proposed secondary property tax rate is increased by just 1% (to generate the total required additional revenue of 8%). The annual impact to the typical Mesa homeowner is $170, an increase of $10 from the prior year (see Figure 1 below). Figure 1. Mesa Secondary Property Tax Levy and Rate: FY20-21 to FY21-22 FY20/21 FY21/22

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HERE'S ON MORE MAJOR HUGE ITEM

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How do the six Mesa City Council District representatives and the Mayor use this available Zoom Virtual Platform ?
Council Study Session Notice:
"To decrease COVID-19 exposure, the City Council Chambers is closed, but public viewing and input on the items are available electronically. Members of the City Council will appear electronically for this meeting, via a video conferencing platform, and the live meeting will be accessible via broadcast and telephonically."
THE PROBLEM: There usually are few, if any - none - required blue comment cards filed ahead of time from members of the public who want to engage or participate!
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"The Mesa City Council believes that its people, not leaders, are what makes a City great and actively works to encourage citizen participation in the decision-making process. Whether it is through neighborhood meetings, advisory boards and committees, telephone calls and letters, or email, the Mesa City Council sets policies based on the input and needs of its citizens.

HOW ABOUT A CITIZEN PARTICIPATION REPORT FOR EVERY ONE OF THE SEVEN ON MESA CITY COUNCIL ?
Exactly how did your elected and salaried representatives encourage their constituents - you - to get involved in city government and the decision-making process? More than anything else, it's a matter of open, transparent and accountable government. Keeping them honest.
Did they contact and/or reach out to you by any or all of the available means for your input?
Did you take the time to contact your district representative?

Did they respond?

• Telephone calls and letters
• Email
• Neighborhood meetings
• Social media

Exactly how active are your Mesa City Council members to earn their salaries and benefits?
Where, When, How and Why - and with Who - do they spend their time to make decisions?

 

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• 21-0587 A resolution approving the budget for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2022. (5 votes required) 1-b 
  

File #:

21-0587

Type:

Resolution

Status:

Agenda Ready

In control:

City Council

On agenda:

6/7/2021

Title:

A resolution approving the budget for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2022. (5 votes required)

Attachments:

1. Resolution with FY 21-22 Final Budget, 2. FY 21-22 Pie Charts

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THE US MILITARY IS STARTING TO GET REALLY INTERESTED IN STARSHIP || 2021

Please Note: Inserted are some details taken from an article by Eric Berger writing in Ars Technica on the same subject that received more than 500 comments

The US military is starting to get really interested in Starship

"The Air Force seeks to leverage the current multi-billion dollar commercial investment."

Eric Berger - 6/1/2021, 6:50 AM

"As part of last week's federal budget rollout, a process during which the White House proposes funding levels for fiscal year 2022, the US Air Force released its "justification book" to compare its current request to past budget data. The 462-page book contains a lot of information about how the Air Force spends its approximately $200 billion budget.

For those tracking the development of SpaceX's ambitious Starship vehicle, there is an interesting tidbit tucked away on page 305, under the heading of "Rocket Cargo" (see .pdf). The Air Force plans to invest $47.9 million into this project in the coming fiscal year, which begins October 1.

"The Department of the Air Force seeks to leverage the current multi-billion dollar commercial investment to develop the largest rockets ever, and with full reusability to develop and test the capability to leverage a commercial rocket to deliver AF cargo anywhere on the Earth in less than one hour, with a 100-ton capacity," the document states.

Although this does not refer to Starship by name, this is the only vehicle under development in the world with this kind of capability. The Air Force does not intend to invest directly into the vehicle's development, the document says. However, it proposes to fund science and technology needed to interface with the Starship vehicle so that the Air Force might leverage its capabilities. . .

Clearly, some Air Force officials are intrigued by the possibility of launching 100 tons of cargo from the United States and having the ability to land it anywhere in the world about an hour later.

Accordingly, the Air Force science and technology investments will include "novel loadmaster designs to quickly load/unload a rocket, rapid launch capabilities from unusual sites, characterization of potential landing surfaces and approaches to rapidly improve those surfaces, adversary detectability, new novel trajectories, and an S&T investigation of the potential ability to air drop a payload after reentry," the document states.

. . .If it is successful, it would offer the US military logistical capabilities that no other force on the planet could match.

SpaceX already launches spy and communications satellites for the US military. However, in moving into logistics and the potential movement of munitions, the company may be treading on an ethical line with some space enthusiasts. It would also further embolden the claims of some international critics, such as Russian space leader Dmitry Rogozin, who has suggested (without evidence) that SpaceX aims to launch nuclear weapons into space.

 

 

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Final Agenda: Remote Zoom STUDY SESSION Mesa City Council Thu 06.03.2021 at 07:30 a.m.

Something was added - in addition to the 35 items already on the previously printed and published Tentative Agenda in advance of one more study session before the regular council meeting for Monday, June 7, 2021 at 5:45 p.m.

THE FINDINGS IN A CITIZEN SURVEY ON POLICING AND COMMUNITY SAFETY

Conducted by ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy

Here are the usual questions that are asked about the conduct of surveys:

1. Is it believable and verifiable and independent when there might be overlapping interests?

    There must be disclosure if there is or has been a relationship in the past or present

2. Is the survey representative and reliable?

    What is the size of the data sample in relation to the entire citizen population?

    What method was used for contact, how was it done, and during what time period?

3. The questions asked must be free of taint and/or not intended to produce a desired outcome

4. Would the same results be duplicated in an independent and objective survey by a 3rd party?

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BLOGGER INSERT: Jeff McVay

Here's a presentation back in May 2018: He used a questionable study produced by ASU to support the purported economic benefits of "a presence" of ASU downtown.

 

See: https://mesazona.blogspot.com/2019/01/heads-up-asu-mesa-city-center-another.html

Why revisit this now when Jeff McVay, the city's Director of Downtown Transformation, made the case for that (or tried to) back in May of last year. He used a questionable study produced by ASU to support the purported economic benefits of "a presence" of ASU downtown.

Totally bogus, but Mesa taxpayers got hood-winked by a slick public relations campaign

 

From STATE-OF-THE-CITY 2018 Crow & Giles at State-Of-The-City 2018

Jivin' John Giles and High-Salaried ASU President Michael Crow teamed-up last week for another over-the-top hoopla of hype where Crow got the best blurb about the much debated and controversial ASU campus that emerged as the Mesa City centerpiece, with ASU President Michael Crow sharing center stage with Mesa Mayor Giles. Crow said after his remarks on-stage that "research and innovation in Mesa will be consistent with other innovation districts in Singapore, Sydney, Australia and New York. . . "
"We are very excited about this facility,"  Crow said.*

Walsh wasn't just beat-out by a late write-up/recap, but it looks like he tried to understate the hype from Crow:
"If you travel around the world, there are a few significant digital innovation centers that exist - Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, New York City. We're building one for the Western United States here in Mesa"
That's taken from an earlier article  in ASU Now that got published the same day as the SOTC2019 Speech on February 5, 2019.
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*Blogger Note: Michael Crow should be more than really very excited for at least two reasons:
1. Mesa Mayor John Giles appears to have been told to clean up his clown-act posing with Sparky, the ASU mascot, to kick-off a $500,000 privately-financed public relations screw-up that blew up in their faces when Mesa taxpayers rejected a $200-Million Debt Obligation Bond proposal two years ago.
However, they did succeed in 2018 to trick taxpayers into debt-service financing a $198-million "Grab-Bag-of-Goodies-For-Everybody" that included about $75-million or more* to build facilities for ASU around City Hall Plaza. If ASU wanted a campus downtown they could have financed it themselves.
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* Even though city officials asserted in public and community workshops that the guaranteed price tag was $63.5M, that's jumped to costing Mesa taxpayers $100M.
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Blogger note: Here in Mesa the sweet deals are on city-owned land using about $165,000,000 in taxpayer-funded debt obligations for an ASU Campus @ Mesa City Center. One new construction to start with, and City Manager Chris Brady says he will do three - those items were on the Agenda for the Mesa City Council Study Session Thursday, April 4, 2019 in proposed budgets FY2019/2020 and FY2020/2014.

Mesa taxpayers rejected that spending of $200M in 2016, but nonetheless Chris Brady has stated his intention to finish "the plan" in the behind-the-scenes real estate deals with ASU no matter what.
These public investments - using debt obligations foisted on the backs of taxpayers IN THE CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC SAFETY on city-owned land and properties around City Hall - started a stampede in real estate speculation on Main Street. "Wealth-Creation" for a favorite few in downtown commercial/residential real estate can then get leveraged for private investments by cohorts that are closely-connected to capitalize their own profits from gains in gambling - gaming Mesa taxpayers to underwrite their speculative investments.

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It is item 2-a on these Meeting Details with links to open attachments for the file numbers

Meeting Name:

City Council Study Session

Agenda status:

Final

Meeting date/time:

6/3/2021 7:30 AM

Minutes status:

Draft

Meeting location:

Lower Council Chambers

Published agenda:	Agenda	Published minutes:	Not available

Meeting video:

Not available

Attachments:

• Meeting Items (4)

4 records Group Clear sorting Clear grouping Group by Type Group by Result Export Export to Excel Export to PDF Export to Word Show: Legislation only Legislation only All agenda items

File # Agenda # Type Title Action Result Action Details 21-0637 2-a Presentation Hear a presentation and discuss the findings of a citizen survey conducted by ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy on policing and community safety in Mesa.     Not available 21-0614 3-a Minutes Transportation Advisory Board Meeting held on January 19, 2021.     Not available 21-0621 3-b Minutes Library Advisory Board meeting held on March 16, 2021.     Not available 21-0653 3-c Minutes Museum & Cultural Advisory Board meeting held on March 25, 2021.     Not available

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Council Study Session Notice: To decrease COVID-19 exposure, the City Council Chambers is closed, but public viewing and input on the items are available electronically. 

For help with the online comment card, or for any other technical difficulties, please call 480- 644-2099. 

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