Thursday, August 18, 2022

PROFILE IN COURAGE: Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg Guilty Plea

Things are happening faster than expected.

Trump CFO's Expected Guilty Plea Adds to Former President's Legal Woes - Bloomberg

2 hours ago · Allen Weisselberg, former chief financial officer of Trump Organization Inc., right, arrives to criminal court in New York, US, on Friday, Aug.

✓ RELATED CONTENT

Trump CFO's Expected Guilty Plea Adds to Former President's Legal Woes - Bloomberg

www.bloomberg.com › news › articles

2 hours ago · Allen Weisselberg, former chief financial officer of Trump Organization Inc., right, arrives to criminal court in New York, US, on Friday, Aug.

Trump CFO's plea deal could make him a prosecution witness - AP News

apnews.com › article › new-york-city-do...

12 hours ago · NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's chief financial officer is expected to plead guilty to tax violations Thursday in a deal that would require ...

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg could be called to testify against company after pleading guilty in fraud case - CBS News

www.cbsnews.com › news › allen-weissel...

9 hours ago · Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is expected to plead guilty Thursday to 15 counts of fraud and tax ...

TRANSPARENCY FOR MESA CITY COUNCIL...Believe it if you want to!

O Yeah! We're back to that "Transformation" thing ...Behold for yourself: “The idea with that no of transparency and so much glass, is so that citizens and residents can see all the way through it, just like their government should be transparent,” Heirshberg said.

TRANSPARENCY HE SAID ,............

City officials are embarking on a “generational opportunity” to “reimagine and reinvent City Hall” with a new building and site for the city council chambers.

The chambers serve as the heart of Mesa’s democracy, where the public interfaces with elected officials and actions.

Staff unveiled plans to Mesa’s Design Review Board on Aug. 9, giving Mesa’s review boards their first opportunity to weigh in on the look and design of the new building.

Board members generally liked what they saw, offering just a few minor suggestions to city staff.

Mesa’s new chambers won’t be massive, but their symbolism is huge for a city whose leaders want to project the sense to residents and visitors that Mesa is a vital, modern city on the make.

The plan is to relocate the chambers from their current location at 1st Street and Centennial Way to the southeast corner of Center and Main Streets at Mesa City Plaza, on the site of the current annex building.

Crews will demolish the annex building to make way for the new chambers.

The city expects demolition to begin in January 2023.

Mesa’s current five-year capital improvement plan calls for the building to be funded out of the city’s capital general fund.

Officials said they are still working on an estimate for the final costs.

Deputy City Manager Marc Heirshberg presented the plans for the two-story glass, steel and terracotta tile structure to the Design Review Board.

Heirshberg said the materials were chosen to keep the building consistent with some of the recently built and existing buildings in this section of downtown, such as the ASU at Mesa City Center building not far from the site.

Designers imagined the 160-seat main council chambers as a “building within a building,” sitting on the second floor, almost as if on display above an airy lobby.

The building is topped with a thick metal roof overhanging the walls at an angle.

“It’s a beautiful building. I really appreciate it,” board member Jeanette Knudsen told city officials.

The inside of the chamber is intended to be partially visible from the outside, and vice versa, the transparency achieved abundant panels of glass.

The city’s architect for the project, Adaptive Architects, wrote in the project narrative that one of the themes of the project is “jewel in the desert,” and they nodded to this idea by making the building attractive when lit up from the inside at night.

The building will have programmable LEDs so staff can change colors for certain occasions.

The roof will be embellished with touches of red, amber and blue – Mesa’s primary city colors.

The design board praised the design to incorporate color as well as other choices in the design.

One of the main topics of concern for board members was whether the new council chambers building looked visually connected enough to the Mesa City Plaza tower to which it will be connected.

The eight-story building was constructed in 1975 and is heavily accented with copper stripping.

The board seemed to agree that more could be done to visually tie the old and new buildings together.

“You’re not going to get me to say anything bad about the design, I think it looks nice,” board member Dane Astle said. “My only comments really come to the connection and the similarities that would come between the two (buildings) becoming one.”

The discussion last week was the first of two reviews the council chamber plans will receive from the board.

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WARNING SIGN: Toxic Mercury Found in Man-Made Waters of Patagonia Lake

The stories advise to limit your consumption of a "bottom-feeder" , but it goes way deeper than that!

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Elevated Mercury Levels Prompts Fish Consumption Advisory For Santa Cruz County's Patagonia Lake - Arizona Daily Independent

arizonadailyindependent.com › News

patagonian lake mercury from arizonadailyindependent.com

6 days ago · The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) recommends that adults limit consumption of Flathead Catfish from Patagonia Lake to ...A fish consumption advisory has been issued by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for Flathead Catfish caught from Patagonia Lake in Santa Cruz County. This advisory is based on recent analyses of fish tissue data that indicate elevated levels of mercury.

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8 August 2021

ANSWERING THE QUESTION ARE WE CONTAMINATED: In More Ways than PFAS

Here in Mesa, the Phoenix Metro Area and Maricopa County, nothing is now more obvious than the fact that we "Live, Work and Play" in a toxic and contaminated environment.

-- both in the air, on-the-ground and in underground water aquifers where replenishing surface waters seeping into the ground is not keeping pace with unsustainable sustainable sprawl demands to supply the Real Estate-Industrial Complex economic-engine.

WE NOW SEE THE CONSEQUENCES and the direct costs.

"If you see something, say something"

THIS BUDGET PIE CHART WAS THREE YEARS AGO

Readers might want to take note that water is a precious resource here in the desert and the East Valley.
On top of the $150,000,000 for SBWTP and the $200,000,000 for the GWTP, take a look>
As you can see in the infographic to the right, the taxpayer burden for costs in the City of Mesa's FY17/18 Wastewater Treatment Bond Projects in this fiscal year's budget amount to $45,3000,000 > 23.9%.
Together with the costs of water at $80,9000,000 (42.5%) they consume 2/3 or 66.3% of the entire Budget Pie.
Wastewater costs more than 2X as much as the total amount spent on Parks and 5x as much as money spent on Electric.
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What's it all about: Contaminated Toxic Groundwater around former military bases - there are not one but two of those here in Mesa, Falcon Field Airport in northeast Mesa and Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport in southeast Mesa.

Growing fast around both of them are massive residential real estate developments as well as industrial facilities.

It is NOT a new story, but let's throw what did percolate yesterday after noting that there were a number of posts on the same serious issues years ago

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Problem Here In Mesa? Sites of Military Bases & Water Contamination

Military bases' contamination will affect water for generations
An article updated one day ago brings up possible problems here in Mesa where 2 Master-Planned Communities, Eastmark and Cadence @ Gateway are located.
Other expansion of residential areas around former WW2 base Falcon Field may also be part of issues that are raised in this reporting.
Sites that the City of Mesa uses to monitor water quality might not provide the information that is needed to measure contaminants in the soil, where the testing for these PSFAs are not currently required.

Click here to Read more »

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Four years later:

28 APRIL 2021

The official news release yesterday that nearly all Arizona mainstream media picked up fast:

Governor Ducey Calls On Department Of Defense To Promptly Address Groundwater Contamination In Arizona

Office of the Arizona Governor | April 28, 2021

PHOENIX — Governor Doug Ducey is calling on the U.S. Department of Defense to take prompt action to address Pentagon-related groundwater contamination near Arizona’s military installations.

In an April 27 letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Governor Ducey requested DOD to identify and treat water in Arizona contaminated in the areas surrounding four DOD installations and to prevent additional human exposure to PFAS from other DOD facilities in Arizona.

The four installations with known impacts to groundwater—Luke Air Force Base, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Morris Air National Guard Base and the former Williams Air Force Base—are located in the two most populous metropolitan areas in Arizona, and each is surrounded by businesses and residential communities where thousands of Arizonans live, work and rely on clean groundwater for drinking.

The water is contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

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September 2021

Planet Earth Observations: Decades of Drought on Surface-Waters

Space may be the final frontier

Enlarge / Natural color images from March 1999, April 2005, May 2011, and April 2021 by Landsat satellites chronicle the shrinking Lake Powell reservoir and Lower Colorado River.

New NASA satellite to continue half a century of changing Earth observations

"Landsat has provided a critical reference for assessing long-term changes."

Eric Berger - 9/27/2021, 6:33 AM

18 September 2021

Influence-Maker Jordan Rose: Pinal has Water. . .What She Doesn't Disclose Her Clients are Real Estate Developers

OK. There's a very long back-story going back to a deal arranged by Mesa Deputy City Natalie Lewis to sell more than 11,000 acres of land owned by the City of Mesa that - surprise! - ended up in the hands of Saints Holdings LLC.

"According to Natalie Lewis, assistant to city manager Chris Brady, and also lead negotiator on the deal, Mesa purchased the land in 1985 for more than $29 million for its water rights to create a water farm. Eventually, the city found more cost-effective means to provide the city water.

OH REALLY? DID THEY?

The city expected it would take 20 years or more to sell the land. But two years ago, PLH approached the city with interest in purchasing the land in phases over five years. . More than 5 years ago, this LAND DEAL was one of the largest in Mesa's history.

We didn't know more about it then.

Mesa Seals $135 Million Land Deal

Posted on January 7, 2014

by Kristian Seemeyer

How Pinal County defies the odds to increase development in a drought

Rose Law Group Reporter

By Madelaine Braggs | Rose Law Group Reporter

With a massive influx of new out of state residents filling Phoenix metro vacancies, Arizona desperately needs housing development to grow in Pinal County, but with no groundwater.

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HOLD ON!

Here's a post farther down on September 5, 2019 from Saints Holdings on Twitter if readers of this blog are curious what the Saint's holding companies are planning to create between Phoenix and Tucson around Casa Grande and Coolidge and Florence > a new "inland port", much similar to the same thing in-the-works in Utah. . . it certainly looks likes they are tending to now privatize water-rights just when a federal Drought Emergency Contingency Plan has been activated. When big deals like the sale of 'obsolete water-rights' on thousands of acres that would be just dirt without it, there's always scandals that surface somehow taking a cue from an earlier extract . . .

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It seems like an impossible task… however, Pinal Partnership is proving that the solutions are here, legislation just needs to get on the same page.

At this week’s Pinal Partnership panel Water Solutions 2.0, moderated by Rose Law Group founder and president Jordan Rose, farmers, former mayors, stakeholders and regulators all gathered to share their expertise. While the situation is daunting, it turns out there is a way to develop through a drought.

I can’t get a new assured water supply determination, what can I do?

Terri Sue Rossi, Water Resources Manager at Arizona Water Company, says if a project plan brings something compelling to the table, there’s a chance they can make a deal.

“We’re looking at the property and figuring out all the assets that exist in your control that we can leverage to create an assured water supply.”

But it won’t be easy. Questions will arise such as, “Are you located in an irrigation district where we can deliver water? Or can you with your rights? Can we recover that irrigation system and then build and isolate a water system for your subdivision?”

To create a water system to serve a housing development, without new groundwater permits, builders essentially must include an irrigation system and treatment plan that would have to bring water from a resource like the Colorado River, for example. It would have to be funneled somehow into Arizona canals, purified and then into homes

lake mead — Lake Mead [Photo courtesy NASA]

Shocked reactions continue to be expressed following Tuesday’s announcement that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation will be cutting Arizona’s supply from the Colorado River by 20 percent as of Jan. 1, 2023.

“The federal government has failed to offer a plan that requires all states to make the cuts necessary to save the Colorado from system collapse,” said Stanton, a Democrat. “Today’s announcement merely kicks the can down the road and risks turning this crisis into catastrophe.”

Stanton may be calling on the federal government to “play a stronger role” now, but he was not seen as very concerned about water preservation when he served from 2012 to 2018 as the Mayor for the city of Phoenix, or during his eight years on the Phoenix City Council.

Officials in Phoenix have been often criticized for failing to involve all stakeholders in water conservation plans and for pushing “publicity friendly” ideas which do not adequately address long-term planning needs or economic realities.

Another politician being called out for his response to the Colorado River cuts is U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, who is now demanding the Department of Interior make long-term solutions “an urgent priority,” despite the fact Arizona’s water future has been a top priority for state Republicans for several years.

Earlier this year, Gov. Doug Ducey signed Senate Bill 1740 which provides a $1 billion investment for projects providing additional water for the state. In addition, the governor is currently accepting applications for the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority Board created as part of the legislation.

11 November 2020

Are The Cows Already "Outta-The-Barn" In Pinal County? > Pinal County will intervene in sale of Johnson Utilities

complicated

There's definitely "Something-In-The-Water" - in the murky history and double back-handed dirty money deals running through the pipelines of politics in Pinal County. Some people crossing county lines in Mesa and Queen Creek don't exactly have 'clean hands' to show for all their efforts.

The final hearing before the Arizona Corporate Commission is set for Nov. 18 - a week ahead of today for the proposed sale to EPCOR. If that's not all ready too complicated as an un-settled compromise, there's more:

To learn the purchase price, the county will need to approve a non-disclosure agreement, . .Johnson Utilities customer John Dantico strongly urged the board to intervene, as the county is the closest government entity for more than 100,000 people whose quality of life will be affected for decades to come, he said.

“Everyone is in favor of EPCOR acquiring Johnson Utilities but there are important issues that need to be reviewed in the hearing like how EPCOR intends to provide service to areas that are still subject to a moratorium and how much this acquisition will impact ratepayers with future rate increases.

Comment by Deal--Maker Court Rich, Rose Law Group Co-Founder

^{(Disclosure:
Rose Law Group represents landowners and homebuilders working with the
ACC to find a utility solution in the Johnson Utilities service area.)}

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^{RELATED CONTENT ON THIS BLOG}

25 May 2019

Troubled Waters Here In The East Valley: Who Ya Gonna Call?

This could be THE BIGGEST STORY to hit municipalities here in The East Valley in years. Investigative reporters really need to dig deeper. . . One stands out from the rest: Jordan Houston, who's recently published some articles in the East Valley Tribune that are not on this topic of interest.
It's not just about Johnson Utilities in Queen Creek and the newly-incorporated city of San Tan Valley. There are many more dots to connect that have been slow-dripping in the spigot of what gets published.
What does put this topic at the top-of-the-list are serious. So far few reporters have feared to go there - diving deep into the culture here of politics and corruption that permeate nearly every level of government in the East Valley landscape in most municipalities: where finance, and real estate interests are entangled with corruption at the highest levels. . .

Johnson Utilities Hit with $100 Million Lawsuit for Allegedly Violations Water-Quality Laws

By Marivic Cabural Summers May 24, 2019

"Johnson Utilities is facing a $100 million lawsuit alleging that it violated numerous water-quality laws, endangering public health and the environment.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) through the Attorney General’s office filed the civil complaint against Johnson Utilities.
The lawsuit charged the Arizona water company of 57-count violations including sanitary discharges without permit, sewer overflows, overtopping of impoundments, offensive odor, unauthorized modifications, etc.
The ADEQ argued that the actions of Johnson Utilities endangered public health and the environment. . . "

Story image for Johnson Utilities from AZ Big Media

Valley Partnership works to find solutions to water availability issues in ...

AZ Big Media-May 24, 2019

Another issue related to water that has gotten a lot of attention from Valley Partnership members is the problems in San Tan Valley with Johnson Utilities

This story by Sarah Tory originally appeared in High Country News and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.

ENVIRONMENT

Rapid Growth in Arizona’s Suburbs Bets Against an Uncertain Water Supply

SARAH TORY

07/22/21

The entrance to the Cadence at Gateway subdivision, a new housing development on the outskirts of Mesa, AZ, itself a suburb of Phoenix, is a long paved road lined with towering palm trees. With homes built by several companies, including Lennar, the nation’s largest homebuilder, Cadence offers a plethora of amenities: an indoor fitness center, a game room, tennis, volleyball, basketball and bocce courts, an event center called Mix, three swimming pools and two chute-style waterslides.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” asked Megan Santana, whose own home is currently under construction, as we walked toward the back of the community center, which has a large green lawn. “You feel like you’re on an island resort

“To live in a city named after a bird that periodically self-immolates itself is to invite scrutiny,” writes lawyer, academic, and Phoenix resident Grady Gammage Jr. in his 2016 book The Future of the Suburban City. And sociologist Andrew Ross dubbed Phoenix the “least sustainable city on Earth” in his 2011 book Bird on Fire.

There’s truth to these assessments: The Valley of the Sun receives less than 8 inches of rainfall each year. Most of the valley’s water supply comes from the winter snowpack in distant mountains, which melts and flows through a vast system of dams, reservoirs, and canals. Two major watersheds are involved: The Central Arizona Project (CAP) diverts water from the Colorado River, 300 miles away, and the Salt River Project (SRP) draws from the Salt and Verde rivers, north of Phoenix. There are two other water sources: groundwater, which is pumped from the aquifer below, and a small but growing amount of treated wastewater, accounting for an estimated 5 percent of the water supply statewide. Every municipality has a different mix of water supplies with varying degrees of reliability. Urban Phoenix, for instance, has diversified and carefully managed water supplies, while many of the newer outer-lying suburbs are much more dependent on a single source, according to the City of Phoenix Water Services Department.

In the early years of Phoenix’s growth after World War II (when air conditioning became widely available) much of its water supply came from pumping groundwater. But rapid declines in aquifer levels in the 1960s and 1970s pushed state lawmakers to pass the Groundwater Management Act in 1980. The law created “Active Management Areas,” which required developers and municipal water providers to obtain permits from the Arizona Department of Water Resources confirming that they had 100 years of “assured water supply” for new homes.

Originally, that assured water supply came primarily from the Salt River Project or the Colorado River, but in 1993, the state paved a way to build new homes served only by groundwater, allowing housing development to spread into the outer reaches of Phoenix and Tucson. To do that, legislators created the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District (CAGRD), an entity tasked with replacing pumped groundwater by finding renewable water supplies and injecting that water back into the aquifer.

The Central Arizona Project canal had just been completed, and the Valley of the Sun was flush with new surface water deliveries from the Colorado River. Developers and municipalities that lacked an assured water supply could enroll in the CAGRD, which in turn, charged a fee for replenishing the groundwater they used. They did so with surface water acquired by various means, including the purchase of excess CAP supplies or leasing Colorado River water from tribes.

A lateral canal brings water from the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal system to agricultural land near Casa Grande, AZ. Photo credit: Roberto (Bear) Guerra / High Country News

The loophole worked; since 1995, a majority of new homes and lands enrolled in CAGRD’s growth are located at the far western and eastern ends of the Phoenix area.

Meanwhile, unrelenting drought and years of rising temperatures due to climate change have pushed the long-overallocated Colorado River to the brink, making it increasingly difficult for the CAGRD to find new renewable water supplies to meet its long-term obligations. This, in turn, caused the CAGRD’s replenishment fee to soar from $154 per acre-foot in 2002 to $742 per acre-foot in 2021.

subverting that stewardship,” she said.

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MesaZona > Table of Contents : Here's The Menu. Enjoy

Thursday, August 18, 2022

PROFILE IN COURAGE: Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg Guilty Plea

Trump CFO's Expected Guilty Plea Adds to Former President's Legal Woes - Bloomberg

Trump CFO's Expected Guilty Plea Adds to Former President's Legal Woes - Bloomberg

Trump CFO's plea deal could make him a prosecution witness - AP News

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg could be called to testify against company after pleading guilty in fraud case - CBS News

TRANSPARENCY FOR MESA CITY COUNCIL...Believe it if you want to!

Mesa to transform historic council chambers

WARNING SIGN: Toxic Mercury Found in Man-Made Waters of Patagonia Lake

Elevated Mercury Levels Prompts Fish Consumption Advisory For Santa Cruz County's Patagonia Lake - Arizona Daily Independent

8 August 2021

ANSWERING THE QUESTION ARE WE CONTAMINATED: In More Ways than PFAS

Governor Ducey Calls On Department Of Defense To Promptly Address Groundwater Contamination In Arizona

September 2021

Planet Earth Observations: Decades of Drought on Surface-Waters

New NASA satellite to continue half a century of changing Earth observations

"Landsat has provided a critical reference for assessing long-term changes."

18 September 2021

Influence-Maker Jordan Rose: Pinal has Water. . .What She Doesn't Disclose Her Clients are Real Estate Developers

How Pinal County defies the odds to increase development in a drought

I can’t get a new assured water supply determination, what can I do?

How To Address Water Shortage Isn’t An Easy Answer

11 November 2020

Are The Cows Already "Outta-The-Barn" In Pinal County? > Pinal County will intervene in sale of Johnson Utilities

25 May 2019

Troubled Waters Here In The East Valley: Who Ya Gonna Call?

Rapid Growth in Arizona’s Suburbs Bets Against an Uncertain Water Supply

Pipe dream or possible? Experts weigh in on idea of sending Mississippi River water to West

NO CAPTAIN ONBOARD