Above is the supposed contact list for the DRB and Planning Commission. If these links fail to work, blame the board members for participating in the secret government run my Manross and Dolan.

If you have any questions concerning any planned projects, don't hesitate to contact the ones above who make the decisions.

Scottsdale Coalition members have been participating in the Downtown Development Revision process for the last year and a few months. They have been in "focus groups" and part of the discussion since the beginning of many projects that have caught the headlines, including Hanover.

One thing has been very clear. City leadership has sat back and paid little attention. Well, except for those two scoundrels Nelssen and Littlefield. Fie upon them for asking important questions and expecting reasonable answers. Honestly, what is this world coming to, when elected officials dare to try and hold themselves and staff to accountability.

At no time have the other Council members addressed community concerns. Not Councilman McCullagh, not Lane, not Drake, not Ecton, not Mayor Manross. Their silence is deafening. Their vote is lethal.

Early last July the Scottsdale Coalition Steering Committee including members from the residential neighborhoods closely situated to many of the projects met with Mac Cummins and Connie Padian to discuss several projects that had announced following

Council’s adjournment for summer vacation, last July.

At that time the Hanover project (between Fifth Avenue and Goldwater Blvd. on Indian School Road, 240 apartments, mixed use) had not submitted plans, though it now stands as approved And Centrovida, the new Los Arcos Crossing was not on the schedule either.

Mr. Cummins provided us with documents for all of the projects that we discussed:

All of these projects, except the Rose Garden, have asked for additional building height.

All of them will increase residential density.

All will impact infrastructure such as water and sewer lines with increased flow, increased traffic flow through neighborhoods and other transportation needs, as well as increasing need for open spaces while placing more stress on existing open space.

Some of them will need incentives from the City to enable redevelopment, not necessarily subsidies on the surface.

All of it must include businesses that will boost the economic stability of the Southern neighborhoods, addressing the needs for shopping in our area.

There was agreement that it was also possible to slow down the approval process for some of the projects proposed for Downtown, not stop them. That way the developers could be notified of major ideas and/or concerns coming to the City through the focus group process thus providing better direction.

This is an election year in our fair City and it seems that some wheels within government have slowed down, while others have kind of spiraled off on their own.

Since 1996, some of us have been involved with the issues of redevelopment in the McDowell/Scottsdale Road Corridor, participating in planning activities from the redevelopment of the Los Arcos site, to street-scaping both McDowell and Scottsdale Roads, to the removal of the Downtown Redevelopment designation, to the redevelopment of the "Old Smitty's" site, to the 2001 General Plan Amendment election, to the convoluted redevelopment project called SkySong.

Our input, your input, is still critical to these projects.

On March 19, 2008, there is another opportunity to provide input to the Downtown Plan Update on the topics of: History, Circulation, Land Use, Urban Design, Arts and Culture, Economic Vitality and Sustainability; from 6 to 9 PM at the Granite Reef Senior Center, Room 1, 1700 North Granite Reef Road.

Contact Scottsdale Advance Planning Division, at 480-312-7990 for further information or to let them know you will attend.

Nancy Cantor, Chair
Scottsdale Coalition

Every computer has a very distinct IP address which is fully traceable under all conditions. And it just so happens that it’s a Scottsdale company doing the survey.

Isn’t it funny being that the city rarely hires local firms, excepting in this case?

And gee, employee wellness seems to be a specific issue…. Does the independent investigation a while back whose conclusion was that the city was "Sick" due to poor morale have anything to do with this?

Could the poor morale be greatly reduced with the immediate resignation of Jan Dolan and a number of other managers? We think that answer is obvious……………

This would appear to be another way for Jan Dolan and her "Storm Troopers" to secretly find out who the dissenters are within the city work force and who are the one’s she needs to get rid of next.

HotLine
Feb. 19, 2008                                                  No. 285

Later this month, randomly selected employees throughout the organization will have an opportunity to participate in interactive meetings conducted by the Advanced Strategy Center, a Scottsdale-based and nationally-known company specializing in customer- and employee-based interactive feedback sessions.

Unlike traditional focus groups, these sessions allow participants to provide anonymous, collaborative and simultaneous feedback using laptop computers. The facilitator is developing questions that cover a variety of topics of interest to employees. The facilitator is asking all participants to provide feedback that is clear, specific and constructive during the sessions.

Those who are selected to participate will receive electronic invitations in the next few days and will be invited to choose the most convenient session based on their work schedule.

The eight sessions will be held in the Corporation Yard Wrangler Room on Tuesday, Feb. 26 and in the large training room on the second floor of the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, Feb. 27. There will be four 90-minute sessions each day, at 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. If you are selected to participate, the facilitator has asked that you please arrive 5 to 10 minutes early. The sessions will start promptly.

During the sessions, participants will use an innovative approach that provides each person with a laptop computer for simultaneous yet anonymous responses on a series of key questions and issues about Scottsdale and the organization’s working environment. In addition, there will be plenty of opportunity for open discussion and reaction facilitated by staff from the Advanced Strategy Center. This format allows everyone to have input, whether they wish to participate in discussions or not. All feedback is anonymous and will not be attributed to individual employees.

Feedback from the sessions will be used by Leadership Team committees, which were formed by City Manager Jan Dolan last fall, to study several key issues. These committees are researching and developing recommendations in the areas of performance management, recruitment, retention and employee communications. Employee wellness will also be covered during the sessions.

The results from the sessions will be shared with the Leadership Team in March. A series of dialogues will also be scheduled for employees to learn and talk about the results.

For more information, contact Brent Stockwell, assistant to mayor/council at ext. 27288 or Velicia McMillan, training & development director at ext. 27252.

(If there are employees in your area who do not have access to a computer, please print and post this announcement.)

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The Scottsdale Activist is very excited to welcome 2 more organizations to our information base with the addition of the Scottsdale Coalition and the Community Council of Scottsdale.

The Community Council of Scottsdale organization as been an integral part of south Scottsdale since 1987 averaging over 50 members and has provided much needed information to the citizens through high level speakers that just is not provided under the Manross Dolan administration.

This group meets on the 3^rd Thursday of every month at the new Senior Citizens Center at Granite Reef and McDowell with the public invited.

Because the Community Council doesn’t have a website, the Scottsdale Activist will provide readers information about and from those meetings including the date and times.

The Chair of the Community Council is Jerry Lennemann and he can be reached at

jerrylenne@yahoo.com

The Scottsdale Coalition organization has been another integral part of the south since 2003 with over 400 members and a 13 member steering committee. They meet in March and September with bimonthly email updates as to what’s going on within the city as assessed by the steering committee. If actions are necessary, the members are mobilized accordingly.

Because the Scottsdale Coalition doesn’t have a website, the Scottsdale Activist will provide readers information from the bimonthly emails as well as those meetings including the date and time of their meetings.

The chair of the Scottsdale Coalition is Nancy Cantor and she can be reached at

nancyanncantor@cox.net .

The addition of these two organizations doubles the information available to our readers in addition to the websites of COPP and COGS whose website links are included in the Activist for your information. Both the COPP and COGS websites are updated on a regular basis.

Vital Information

We feel it’s important that the vital information provided by all of these organizations is available to all residents reading the Activist because this information is not provided by the press or the city in most cases or if provided, is incomplete and biased in the city’s favor at best.

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The latest meeting of the Community Council of Scottsdale was again a very provocative and fact filled meeting with some very deep emotions and thoughts spoken from deep within the heart of very disappointed and continually concerned citizens.

We thought it was very interesting that the plan proposed as "SkyView" by Brian Swanton, Executive Director of the non-profit Community Services of Arizona and former Scottsdale employee was nothing more than a project that had been designed by Todd and Associates and proposed for Sky Flop at an earlier time, then discarded for lack of universal uses. I think he was as surprised to know that fact as anyone in attendance.

Very simply, it boiled down to the fact that these properties would not work for families or the elderly citizens because they are 3 stories tall, had zero open space family driven amenities, and would only attract singles or working couples (college students?).

There are apparently some controls to stop a number of people from buying a unit and "flipping it", and controls as to when, to whom you could sell or rent your unit, and the financial qualifications necessary to be able to purchase a unit.

The proposed prices for the "market value" properties were ^$400,000 which is over ^$100,000 dollars higher than a family can purchase a decent 3 bedroom 2 bath same or larger size home with a nice front and back yard from Chaparral south.

Makes you wonder what the real objective of the project is doesn’t it?

It was nice to see Councilmen Nelssen, Lane and McCullagh in the audience as well as council candidates Nan Nesvig and Joel Bramoweth.

It was mentioned more than once that no one ever sees her majesty Manross at any citizen meetings.

We guess she thinks she’s far too good and far too above the masses to mingle with the peasants.

Could September change that??? We certainly hope so.

COGS presented John Berry Esq. and the Hanover Project at the Granite Reef Senior Center last Thursday night prior to the Community Council meeting so the COGS members could attend the Community Council meeting after the Berry presentation. The meeting proceeded even though the City Council surprisingly passed the Hanover Project Tuesday council meeting prior to the Downtown plan being presented to the council in the next week or so.

It would appear that "Queen Mary" is running scared and is trying everything possible to shove stuff down our throats faster than we can react. Unfortunately, Councilman Lane unexpectedly joined the mayor in the "yes" vote making his description as "Mary Lite" by more and more in the press stick even tighter to him and his mayoral candidacy.

What a shame, he could have been a great mayor if he would have just listened to and understood his constituents. It totally amazes us that the great Scottsdale historian and 65 year Scottsdale resident Paul Messinger and Lanes campaign manager allows Lane to basically destroy our history with every council vote he makes of late.

Mr. Berry brought a 3D piece to show what Hanover would look like and it didn’t convince anyone that it was a worthwhile project that would fit into the area properly.

We live in the Southwest and strongly prefer Southwest architecture not caring a damn what they do to the interiors.

What is it that the Council, DRB, Planning Commission and the Developers don’t understand?

Well, it would appear that Mr. Berry has won again…………….. or has he????

Anyone driving west from Hayden Road past 78^th Street cannot miss the big "Condo Sale" or "For Sale" signs which predominate many windows in the Belle Vida Condo complex.

This has been brought to the attention of CE and Raun Keagy on numerous occasions over the last couple of months with apparently nothing being done about the problem. Signs in windows are restricted to fill only 25% of the window, and says nothing about 25% of the total window space available to the best of our knowledge. Is there massive favoritism or just flat "don’t see it ‘ism" going on here?

Those driving northbound on Scottsdale Road at Mayo Drive see the 40 foot box trailer with a huge advertisement for Lund Cadillac, the two big pieces of stationary construction equipment with huge signs facing both Scottsdale Rd, Mayo Dr, and the SR-101 Freeway. There have been a number of complaints against this visually obnoxious mess too. There are square foot limits on signs and they certainly are not being enforced in either instance mentioned herein.

Where is the "One Issue Sign Slayer", Dolan supported, builder/developer sponsored and paid for Ron McCullagh when you really need him? Having a complimentary cocktail with his campaign donors planning his next move against the citizens?

Where is our so called Code Enforcement hierarchy? Acting the three monkeys; See no evil, say no evil and do no evil for fear of upsetting Big Dog Dolan?

All of these are examples of egregious sign ordinance violations and they are very objectionable to most residents and visitors.

Why do we allow Construction equipment to have huge signs such as those seen above? Can't they be covered up or can't they use equipment without the signs? Political signs are out via McCullagh but we get to keep these monstrosities? Wrong!!!

Scottsdale Taxpayers have already spotted Lund Cadillac millions of tax dollars to stay in the city, why do we need to be pummeled with all of this visual blight which is strictly against the current sign ordinance?

Let’s call it what it really is: Discriminatory and discretionary Code Enforcement as directed by none other than City Manager/Treasurer Jan Dolan with puppy dog Keagy being the good soldier and doing exactly as he’s told so he doesn’t have to leave like so many others.

No, don’t let anyone fool you, the others didn’t leave of their own volition except Jeff Fisher who was flat out fired, they knew their days were numbers because they didn’t agree with Dolan and that is a death wish in Scottsdale.

…and you thought "Mother Mary" and "Storm Trooper Jan" had given up on light rail?

You had better think again!!!

Here’s what the city website shows about the transportation terminal at SkySwindle:
 

Capital Improvement Projects CIP Project Status Report Project: ASU Scottsdale Center Transit Passenger Facility Project Number:  410-T0601 Geographic Area: South    Location:   Scottsdale Rd & McDowell Rd Funding Source: Grants, Transportation 0.2% Sales Tax Status Updated: 1/10/2008     Current Phase: Planning   Construction Start: 11 / 2009 Bid/Contract#: has not been entered Projected Completion: 10 / 2010 View current solicitations for bid Progress: percent complete by phase Planning - 97% Design - 0% Construction - 0% Status: Project planning is underway. Site evaluation is complete and the consultant is currently working on the environmental assessment. Public Outreach - Next Scheduled Meeting:   Meetings will be conducted with affected residents and businesses in the neighborhood. Description: Design and construct a transit passenger facility at the ASU Foundation Scottsdale Center with shaded areas, drinking fountains, information kiosks, other passenger amenities and City services. Additional Project Information & Related Links:   ASU/Scottsdale Center for New Technology and Innovation Project Contact Information Project Manager: Vivek Galav Phone Number: (480) 312-7245 E-mail Address: vgalav@scottsdaleaz.gov Construction Coordinator: To be determined Arch/Eng Consultant: Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc. General Contractor: Contract to be bid Project Funding Sources Budgets: ITD  Project  5-year CIP  T0601 ASU Scottsdale Center Transit Passenger Facility $2,935,700 $3,500,000 $3,500,000 Total: $2,935,700 $3,500,000 $3,500,000   Combined Projects ITD Total Expenses: $204,370

So would you like to know who Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc. really is? Click on the link below.

http://www.pbworld.com/aboutus/heritage/

That’s funny, it looks like a rail transportation development company to us, what do you think?

Below is what happened to wide open and easily traversed Washington and Jefferson Streets in downtown Phoenix with pictures taken from the SR-51 Thomas Rd over pass. From 6 lanes to 2, what a deal??

Can’t you just imagine what Scottsdale Road would look like after they’re done with it?

Well, by not acting, the Council accidentally acted properly by not voting to appeal the Toll Brothers court decision…… for now.

Was the jury verdict correct? Under the circumstances, yes!

Her nibs Queen Mary and Dolan, her cohort in incompetent crime, thought they could "cut a fat hog" by waiting to try to take the land by eminent domain rather than bid on the property which they probably would have won for less that the court decision dictates now and bagged one hell of a profit for the taxpayers. Kind of sounds like the Hualapai Water Plant deal doesn't it?

So it goes with the current incompetence which is slowly strangling the city of Scottsdale into a cash strapped also-ran who will raise our taxes to fix their chronic mistakes, but won’t stop the mistakes from continuing.

Make sure you vote in September………….

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Dave Roderique is now gone and with him goes even more knowledge about what is needed in Scottsdale.

Knowing Dave prior to Manross/Dolan, he was a very innovative and accomplished part of the Drinkwater Scottsdale team.

Since the Campana, then the Manross/Dolan takeover, we saw a huge change in Dave that was not in the best interest of the city or taxpayers by any means. We’re sure Dave was not pleased either.

Our personal opinion is that Dave tired of the lack of respect, dictated misdirection, and total lack of understanding of the needs of Scottsdale by Manross and Dolan, who in our opinion and based on their actions (or lack thereof), have no clue about what is really needed to make Scottsdale self-sustainable.

history in other cities show that high-rises, density, bars and drunks certainly are not the answer!

Dave looked for greener pastures where he could again be an innovative force for someone who really cared about their city instead of their personal legacies.

We wish Dave the best, and hopefully the Scottsdale 3 ring circus problems will not follow him to his new venture.

Unfortunately, WaterView and Centrovida even though changed a little, don’t meet the needs and requirements of the city codes or those of the neighboring residents.

We’ve been given nothing more than "bait and switch" yet again:

Stay tuned folks; it’s going to get interesting. Keep the list of referendum possibilities handy, you’ll probably refer to it again soon.

As Councilman Littlefield has stated many times:

Well, we now have plans for them too.

Jan Dolan couldn’t care less how badly the south deteriorates and it’s obvious. Dolan wants things her way and when we balk, she just figures she can wait us out, Think again Jan, we’re done waiting.

When you see something going down hill or deteriorating, even something small, call or email the Activist and we’ll present a picture example of it in the Activist which always lights a fire under Code Enforcement and ticks Dolan off no end because over 60,000 readers a month will see it.

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We want to know where the approved 2000 Bond money is for infrastructure upgrades and repairs and we do not want Kroy Ekblaw or Frank Gray giving us one of their typical la-la-la answers. We want to know exactly where we are in general improvements, replacements, etc. for water lines, sewer lines, street maintenance, and electrical services, item by item, inch by inch.

Where is the money and where did it come from and outside of the mess that has been created at SkySong why do the neighborhoods have to wait for developers to do upgrades? Why is the City not doing the upgrades?

We personally do not expect a developer to come in and do the City's job for them. We know that Mr. McCullagh is opposed to tax dollars doing that job, but he needs to be gone, yesterday in the opinion of many (except Jan Dolan and Mayor Manross of course).

Our biggest problem lies with the fact that Dolan has told developers that anything that lies south outside of the Downtown area is not a priority in her mind and it can wait.

We do not want to see things rushed through, but we are just a tad bit tired of Dolan’s attitude. Are we putting things on hold until Mother Mary can get light rail up to non-green SkyFizzle?

We have talked to Gray about the atrocious smells from restaurants in the McDowell Corridor.....he is on that "it is just the grease traps" kick down there too.

We also want to know who told CSA that their project on Belleview needed to be more in sync with SkyFizzle and then gave them the original designs that Todd and Associates did for the apartments at SkyFizzle. The original designs that
Ed Gawf and the Housing Board and the NEC told ASUF were not acceptable.

Also, is anyone in the City aware that with the loss of 3,000 units of market rate/affordable rental housing, and not having replaced any of that, the City is looking at possible discrimination problems, including the loss of CDBG and HOME funds for assistance with housing rehab, ADA adaptive programs, senior housing, emergency funding for home repair, just to name a few??????

This is becoming more of concern after going over those programs with Human Services the last few months as we prepare recommendations for expenditure of those funds.

Lastly, and this comes from many of those who are part of the focus groups for the Downtown; why did the City allow Hanover to fly through before the Downtown Plan was finished? That darned thing is supposed to be completed sometime next month.

Lots of people connected to that Town Hall process and the focus groups are ticked off to no end over the deception and slight of hand at the nod of the city council.

Mr. Lane is not providing us with an alternative to Manross after his current voting record is weighed against that of Manross. As a few others have said, currently we have the choice of "Mary or Mary Lite" which isn’t much of a mayoral choice at all is it?.

We know Nelssen and Littlefield are doing everything they can. So don't take this as a swipe at them in any way at all.

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John Berry knows why we respectfully call him "Snake Oil" and he also knows we respect his ability to get the job done he was paid to do. with that said:

As I write this I know, sadly, that the Scottsdale City Council will vote 5 to 2 to approve the Hanover Project. (Yes, Councilman Lane drank the poison Kool-Aid too)

And, as I write, I am listening to a song called, "For Sale" by a young musician from Maine, Jud Caswell. WOW! He could be singing about Scottsdale. Frankly, the song is playing on BBC Radio Scotland, from Glasgow, Scotland. Why do I have to hear this from out of country? That is a column or volumes for another day.

Developers with a lot of help from attorney’s and our elected and appointed officials have

"……come to buy our neighborhoods and then decide we are not their kind of neighbors……can’t stand to see that money waved around as if everyone and everything is for sale in my hometown……Is that the price we have to pay? And watch your home divvied up and sold away…… Can’t stand to see that money waved around as if everyone and everything is for sale in my hometown………………."

What really angers many of us is that the people we elected, and the people they subsequently appointed to sit on the Planning Commission and Development Review Board totally ignore the people in the community they are supposed to serve. They also ignore the fact that "redevelopment/revitalization" of the mature areas of Scottsdale is very different from developing open vacant land. OOPS!

It might surprise those astute individuals that the attorneys know that the policies and processes should be, need to be, changed. But, hey! They are just doing their jobs with the tools that they have been given. And they are just maneuvering through the lack of policies and procedures that allow them to get what the developers want. That is how they make the big bucks. They will speak freely to this, whilst shaking their heads.

We should all ask ourselves why it is necessary for a member of the City Council and the Planning Commission to also sit on the Development Review Board. Since, both of those bodies can and do review plans, why not give those two seats to residents of the mature neighborhoods?

If you look at the make up of the Planning Commission you have to ask yourself, "where are the just plain residents?" "Why are they all professionals in the field of building, construction, development..."?

When Scottsdale was a "town" with lots of room to grow and more to annex, now all the way to the road going to Bartlett Lake, having a population of well under 100,000 it might have been fine. Now, however they are coming back into our neighborhoods to "redesign" us because they know so much better what looks "edgy, cutting edge."

Remember, the "star ship" landed at 4330 Scottsdale Road and it is still in the wrong spot. It will manage to stay there and that can only be attributed to the majority leadership, not caring to hear and not caring to understand that "we the people" know and want good revitalization that honors the past, while incorporating the advances in technology and construction and design, including green building and energy conservation (these last two elements never seem to register with the Planning Commission or DRB).

Hello, Hanover! Congratulations (??), John Berry, put another notch on you brief case. You can laugh all the way to the bank,. ….again..................... or can you?

Shame on Scottsdale government.

UpDate!!!    UpDate!!!    UpDate!!!    UpDate!!!    UpDate!!!

A referendum Signature Drive to overturn the Hanover approval Vote by the City Council is being conducted. Anyone who wishes to sign the petition or help carry them and get signatures can call 480-994-1181 to pick up petitions or to find locations where the petition gatherers are working. If you can't get out, call and we'll get someone to you for your signature. We have less than 30 days, so let's get busy!!!

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Playing with anyone's right to vote is dead flat wrong. Getting signatures to get any item on a ballot by means of deception is worse than wrong, it’s unconscionable (unscrupulous).

In fact, other than a straight forward request for your vote, all of the political manipulations are wrong and it contributes greatly to the decline of good government whether in Scottsdale, Arizona or anywhere else.

We see games played with websites and the various search engines. Political campaign consultants, gifted in smoke and mirrors, can take you to a candidate’s website and make it appear that everybody and the Good Lord endorse a candidate when in reality, it is just not true.

Recently, we see devious as well as unscrupulous efforts being employed to get signatures on recall petitions. Be careful what you sign. Petition circulating companies are all over the Valley of the Sun with many different petitions attempting to get a huge variety of items on the ballots next fall.

Here in Scottsdale they are trying to associate recall petitions with a ballot measure that will retain property valuations at a certain level. The spiel is that those being recalled support raising property taxes and if you sign the top petitions, just sign your name in on the other two papers and the petition carrier with fill out the rest of the blanks.

Ask questions and if you do not get a clear, concise answer, walk quickly away and report the incident immediately to the Scottsdale Activist at 480-326-2475.

A Recall is a very special event that is only used to try to correct factual egregious acts of perpetrating lies and gross misrepresentations of fact, and for any case of prosecutable malfeasance in public office.

In our opinion, the Recall effort against Councilmen Ecton and Littlefield by landowner Henry Becker has none of the above criteria and is a farce at best and should not be considered by thinking people who really know what’s really behind the Becker bullying nonsense.

One (1) letter sent to Local officials and the official answer are printed below for your information:

===========================================================

February 13, 2008

Ms Carolyn Jagger
Office of the City Clerk
3939 North Drinkwater Boulevard
Scottsdale, Arizona 85251

Dear Ms Jagger:

On Tuesday, February 12, 2008, my niece and I were approached by petition circulators in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart store at Pima Road and Chaparral Road to sign "a" petition. When handed the clipboards we were told to fill out the lines on the first page and then we "needed to fill out our names on the next two pages."

We read the information at the top of the first page and realized that it pertained to maintaining the property tax rates statewide. I flipped up the page after filling it out and started to fill out the next page when the circulator said that all we had to do was print our name and she would do the rest. Immediately, warning flags went up because I know that one must fill-in their own information regardless of the type of petition.

On my clipboard I had to push a very wide rubber band out of the way to read what was at the top of the other petitions on the clipboard. All were different and included petitions pertaining to: Maintaining the Property Tax and, of particular importance to me, there immediately followed 2 Recall Petitions for Councilman Ecton and Littlefield, then followed by petitions for Fair Districts, and Medical Choice for Arizona,

I went back and crossed off where I had started to put my name on one of the recall petitions and had my niece do the same. We do not support the recall.

More importantly we questioned the circulator and she was unable to tell us anything about the other petitions. That was particularly important as their over 7 initiatives pertaining to property values and housing tax trying to get on the ballot.

While I understand that it is up to signers to read the initiative information at the top of the page, the way the circulator was handling the Recall petitions packaged with the Initiative petitions was confusing, as well, telling us that we only had to fill out part of the Recall information and she would do the rest was stunning. Of course, we were not told up front that the second page was a totally different petition, unrelated to the Property Valuation Initiative; her instructions made them appear related.

Not everyone thinks to read every last little line on petitions they sign though we are reminded to do that frequently, and that Property Valuation Petition is a real attention getter. Also, having so many different issues packaged on one clipboard makes signing difficult and unwieldy.

We very concerned about the Recall Petitions and how they were being handled, explained and filled in.

We hope that you will know how best to handle this and see that the right people are brought in to take a good look at what is going on.

Respectfully,

Nancy A. Cantor
Scottsdale

Response from Scottsdale City Clerk:

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 ~Letters to the Editor  

Being an avid reader of the Activist and having read your question about what a "good fit" was for the city, I don't know if you ever received a response from the city regarding what a "good fit" for Scottsdale is suppose to be now (but I have little doubt that you didn't) Third Reich or the Allies.  

All indications in the trenches is the Hitler Youth must be the new  desired "fit" for the city and the long term employees of the old guard are like the SA after Hitler was done with them.  Many employee friends feel like the "Night of the Long Knives" is in the near future for them??  I hate to use the WW II metaphor (as it seems an extreme analogy), but in a less fatal sense, it tactically is truly not all that dissimilar. 

Just like when Hitler knew defeat was absolute, he ordered all of the army and people to fight to the last individual. Partly to inflict as much damage as possible to the side of freedom and true democratic society, but also to punish the surviving soldiers for not succeeding in adequately accomplishing his diabolical plans.   Similarly, as the writing seems to be on the wall for the next election and the subsequent regime change, the apparent paradigm is to continue to hire SS type individuals and purge as many of the existing Drinkwater veterans as possible as soon as possible.

The latest addition to the Scottsdale SS Division, Jim Flanagan: code name Purchasing Manager, rank: Field Marshall of Delegation, Nickname: Heinrich (as in Himmler).  Special Torture Talent: Making everyone's job harder and take more time, while simultaneously spouting diatribes of supposed efficiency and improvement which are totally counter productive at best.  Pet Peeve:  Anyone with an opinion not agreeing with his own.  Likes:  Charts, graphs, matrices, buckets, logs, and anything that makes him look like he's doing something while actually doing absolutely nothing (reminds us of Malcolm Hankins in Code).  Dislikes:  People with actual municipal procurement experience, someone else being correct, anyone with a functioning brain and a spine.

The Purchasing Manager of 20 years recently retired and they hired his replacement 4 months ago, from the private sector (aka Jim Flanagan), and he is the perfect example of exactly what you often talk about on your web site and what those anonymous letters were so accurately describing. 

David Copperfield himself couldn't time-travel to 1943 and perform a better trick of procurement illusion.  He seems to easily fool the "rocket-science (?)" management of Scottsdale into thinking he's "all that and a bag of chips"...all for 99 cents. 

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for but sometimes you pay top-dollar for the old bait & switch and sometimes you pay thru the nose for the treatment that’s suppose to cure you only to find out too late that’s what poisoned you in the first place.

Since the Purchasing Director is going to retire in July, he wants to ignore this situation and basically throw all of his staff under the bus and say See-Ya! (this is the West’s Most Western Town isn’t it)?  His primary defense or logic for this is that his boss is worse than Jim and that’s why he's retiring now and the employees should feel lucky because he's not as bad as his boss.  That seems like a good defense in a murder case: I only killed 5 people, but I could have killed 10.  So, because of my compassionate benevolence in not taking 5 more, it's even or should be okay in some bizarre world of altered reality.

And so it goes with those loyal employees who are hoping and praying for a massive change of direction with the September elections.

Signed,

A dear friend of a Scottsdale employee who wouldn’t dare send such a letter for fear of losing their job and losing their retirement………

Okay, we are going to try to beat this into the taxpayer’s heads because we know that other than Bob and Tony, the Circus is still too stupid to figure it out, even when it is in writing and in front of them.

The bigger problem could be that maybe, their reading comprehension skills totally suck.

Both the Scottsdale Activist and I have been warning taxpayers about the issues of infrastructure costs for the cities new development activity and the kissing up to developers, or in Ron McCullagh’s case being owned by them, so you will have to love the irony when the city puts out its own documents proving my points.

Now, we are not going to dwell on the facts that the city ignores the issue of creating height and density boundaries as suggested by the experts, and we are not going to dwell on the fact the city ignores the issue of architecture when it comes to creating buildings of height and density increases as again suggested by the experts.

Instead, we are going to start with a single subject called "water" and we know how that is needed as we live in a desert.

At the next City Council meeting, staff will be presenting for adoption the 2008 Water Master Plan. I love how they do this now when we have yet to even start the upcoming General Plan revisions. It shows how we are such an evil little city.

Why adopt this now when it may have to be changed in just two years for the General Plan? For your viewing pleasure this is the link to the 209 page report.

http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Asset19834.aspx

Now, if you consider the City’s present role in all of the "mixed use developments" and their blind assed approaches with no understanding of how much this is going to hit the taxpayers wallets, consider this comment from the report:

But that is nothing if you consider the fact that in the part entitled "summary of water system capitol improvement projects" the total cost which is not really correct if you read the foot notes is a whopping ^$157,665,000 of your taxpaying dollars (^$157.7 million dollars).

Also, you should realize that this does not take into consideration the costs of maintenance which will be determined in a "different and separate report" after we expend another ^$500,000 to implement an "asset management program".

So, are you afraid yet to flush your gold laden toilets up North yet? If not then you will be happy to see in the report what the City is already projecting for the North by the means of density increases, so read the report carefully Bob and Howard.

Another funny thing about these costs is that they are not even escalated in future years and the basis of the costs is in 2007 dollars with no increase factors for inflation.

So, are you afraid to open your water bill yet? They have been increasing it every year at huge rates for the last 7 years. Okay, then consider this: how does the city intend to cover most of these costs? Well, the City response to that was "development impact fees will cover the majority of the costs."

Okay, what "Majority" will it cover since it was also noted in the report that the great population growth Oz was expecting from the last General Plan did not quite pan out and in reality we really ended up short of the projections. So, if development is already down, and the new "mixed use" plan is continued, and the City has already stated that this use is the "third largest water drain" and we have it spread all over the city; then who is responsible to pay for all the upgrades that will be needed to service them? The developer only pays for his sites new system to be hooked to our old crap so we as taxpayers are footing the bill to upgrade much more of the needs for these projects.

Think about it Ozites, as it is well noted that these projects are not revenue generators for the City coffers that already running short for what we as taxpayers require to be spent, and it has been noted more than once in our annual budget sessions.

Hell, in many cases anymore, the taxpayer is even footing the bill for the developer’s site upgrades. The Three Ring Circus just passed a project impacting the proposed Centrovida (Los Arcos Crossing), where we were given an easement for a new larger sewer line that feeds the Sky Puke site in exchange for free hookups for the project. The City never disclosed the costs of condemning or buying the land against what the construction costs are that we taxpayers are paying, nor did any of the Three Ring Circus think to ask.

This is just the costs for a single service and next week we will get to go over the increased costs of the "Wastewater Master Planning".

In reality the staff did a great job on this report, as it points out many things about just this one single natural resource that we must have to live in a desert community.

Ask yourself this one question: If the water runs out, since we are still in a drought of 12 years now, do any of you really think that the little pieces of paper we signed in agreements (worked out by a person who the Phoenix Business Journal pretty much proclaimed a crook who screwed Scottsdale Taxpayers) will really matter?

This really makes the issue of adding Planned Unit Development (PUD’s) to our zoning as some really intelligent future planning from the department of "advanced planning" huh?