Volume
'08-13
Posted
Late Saturdays
March 29, 2008
The Scottsdale Activist
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The Scottsdale Activist has enjoyed 83,351 Total Documented "hits" for March We sincerely THANK YOU for your Continuing Support !! Table of Contents Pick the Article in this Table of Contents that you wish to read, then Just Click ~ Guest Editorial by George Knowlton ~ Weekly Editorial -- Staff
~ Living in the Land of Oz (lite) with Nancy Cantor ~ Cantoni's Confab by Craig Cantoni ~Council and Mayoral Candidates Information ~ Shout and Spout - Hanover referendum? Bitter-Smith? Derrick Lee's Goons?? ~ Thought for the Week -- Benjamin Franklin ~ Quote of the Week -- Various ~ Food for Thought - Take It or Leave It ~Other Stuff of Interest ~ Information You Can Use
~ Look up Prior Editions? Click on a date to open. |
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Design Review Board Contacts Betty
Drake
bdrake@scottsdaleaz.gov |
Planning Commission
Contacts
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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 super-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.
~Guest Editorial
~ Scorned Employee Anonymous Letters Proved True
According to the results I have seen so far on the Employee Survey conducted a week or so ago, all anonymous allegations by the employees concerning morale, Dolan, and upper management printed in the Scottsdale Activist are dead on true and need to be addressed immediately.
Many department and division manager heads need to roll over this miscarriage of management style and decisions.
The Scottsdale Activist has been reporting these problems for over two years with little to no attention being paid to the warnings by city staff or the city council until now. It is now crystal clear that what was being said by the employees was true and cannot now be disputed by anyone including the strong chance of being fired for saying anything about Dolan’s management style.
Neal Shearer and Frank Gray have been part and parcel to these problems and were personally involved in documented off-site interrogations which are strictly forbidden for any reason, especially without any representation, legal or otherwise, for the person(s) interrogated for which the city attorney should take full responsibility and act accordingly as the legal arm of the city.
Neal Shearer and Frank Gray should be offered the same door that many other former employees were offered by them or by their recommendations, without the benefits of course. The city of Scottsdale is too classy to allow such underhanded Gestapo style actions during these Manross years of nonsense.
If probable interim city manager John Little has any cajoñes at all, he will suggest immediate dismiss for both Shearer and Gray for their participation in what appears to be illegal actions taken against employees who where exceptional employees and are no longer employed by the city.
In addition, city employees who have not secured acceptable positions since being shown the door by Dolan or her henchmen need to be brought back with all pay and benefits being retroactive to the date of their departure. We lost some wonderful and experienced employees during Dolan’s "Reign of Terror" and they need to be called back post haste to get the city back on track.
Admittedly there were a few that should have gone, but the vast majority would still be doing the great job they had been doing if it hadn’t been for ridiculous witch hunts by Dolan and her Storm Troopers including Shearer and Gray to find the whistleblowers who were dead on correct on their allegations.
OK Mr. Little, this is your first acid test: Let’s see if you are capable of properly managing the city by immediately offering the door to Shearer and Gray who threw others off the bus for no good reason.
Your next test Mr. Little, should you prove able to accomplish the first test, will be to bring back those employees who where dumped for no acceptable reason, should they want to return.
George Knowlton, Editor
fixscottsdale@hotmail.com
On Monday we will receive a copy of the 148 signatures created by the 5% sample technique employed by the County to determine validity rate of our petition efforts.
Given our current count of 2,949, we could possibly sustain a reasonable error rate and still qualify for the ballot. We had estimated a high single digit error rate based on prior test validation results.
Patty Badenoch and Darlene Petersen recently met with Scottsdale Police and found that SPD’s attitude was dismissive. SPD would clearly prefer we all just forget about the treatment we received from Hanover’s people during the referendum process.
In our opinion, this is not acceptable action by our police department and we are continuing to work on getting the matter the attention it deserves. Anyone, who had any experience with the Derrick Lee goon squads, please contact me with any personal experience you may have had with them.
Contact Height And Density (480) 994-1181 or Tom Giller (480) 227-4150 for more information on the Hanover Referendum and upcoming vote.
~ Hanover Continues "Dirty Politics"?
It would appear for all intent and purposes that Eric Kenney and his attorney Tom Irvine have no intention of listening to the residents of Scottsdale or excepting the overwhelming response to the referendum mandated by those residents who signed the petitions, which is typical Manross "Monster Masher" steamroller tactics.
Why is it that Hanover R.S. Limited Partnership of Scottsdale claim they want the support of the residents, but then fail to listen when the people speak? Is the referendum interfering with the abhorrently ridiculous profit goals of Hanover R.S. Limited Partnership of Scottsdale?
Zoning attorney John Berry was quoted in the Republic newspaper as stating: "My client is always driven to listen to the community". Really? That isn’t being shown by their actions is it?
Does John Berry speak for Eric Kenney, the Designated Real Estate Broker for Hanover R.S. Limited Partnership of Scottsdale, or does Tom Irvine, the hired attorney who seems to be doing the "dirty work" for Hanover R.S. Limited Partnership of Scottsdale by representing them?
We see the typical "good guy – bad guy" ploy being used here. Sadly, Eric Kenney, who could have come across as one of the good guys like the Yari Brothers and Wescor, is instead shooting himself in both feet with the stupidity of his actions and is turning the entire city against him and his project. In an election year, that can be a very poor, and very costly decision for both he and the incumbent council members.
Word has it that Hanover’s attorney has now dispatched sneaky private investigators to canvas every single person who carried petitions to make sure they did as they say they did.
Does this smack of total intimidation to you? It sure does to us at the Scottsdale Activist.
Being that Technical Solutions and Susan Bitter-Smith apparently pointed Hanover to the "Goon Squad" group lead by Derrick Lee that tried very hard to intimidate the petition carriers, do you suppose that those same types of intimidation tactics will also be used by a similar or the same group to try to trip up the petition carriers through trick questions and thereby try to discredit those innocent and caring citizens who volunteered to carry the petitions?
We find this type of action and attacks on honest citizens to be repulsive and totally inappropriate for an educated adult such as Eric Kenney. Eric Kenney and his cronies must have one hell of a lot of abhorrently ridiculous profit on the line to become what appears to be such backstabbers after his zoning attorney clearly stated: "My client is always driven to listen to the community".
If Mr. Kenney really does care about Scottsdale and the residents as he claims, he’ll back off, stop all offensive actions, and wait for the public to speak by voting to approve or disapprove the council’s approval of his project. His failure to address the citizens issues will cost this city money for the election which could have been saved if he had just gone to the neighborhood groups first instead of hiring Technical Solutions and Susan Bitter-Smith, a "Hired Gun", to get the only the answers he needed and wanted to convince the council of the viability of his project instead of the true consensus and answers from ALL the residents in the affected neighborhoods which would have caused far less problems for all of us.
Just drop the legal nonsense Eric if you want to gain back any respect for you and your company.
We would like the developers who would love to bring and build their projects in Scottsdale, and whom we would like to have build here, sit down with the neighbors of the project and the below citizen organizations PRIOR to meeting with anyone with the city for some input from caring and reasonable taxpaying residents.
Wescor and Yari Brothers have done exactly that and have come away highly respected for coming to these groups FIRST and getting tentative approval of their fine projects because THEY LISTENED to the groups prior to going to the DRB, Planning Commission, or city council and have either made or are making the changes necessary to accommodate the realistic recommendations of the residents.
The very successful referendum petition drive on the Hanover Project is just the beginning for those who bypass or won’t work with the resident taxpayers first. They say they are organized and plan to refer any project which doesn’t meet the sustainability standards they have determined necessary for the future of Scottsdale, or the general plan specifications currently on the books.
To quote their phrase, "We’ve been bushwhacked too often and we’re not going to take it any more".
The so called "Activists" ARE NOT anti-growth. They are for controlled growth that will sustain the city far into the future by building smart and green with the proper infrastructure in place, and by adding more open space by utilizing underground parking as much as physically possible.
Requirements will include all height and density be commensurate with the current general plan and zoning with no building taller than 36 feet outside the currently designated downtown area. Wescor and Yari Brothers have successfully done exactly that with their projects.
All of the listed groups below would be very happy to review your project plans and give you their ideas on what is and what isn’t acceptable. Will everyone agree? Probably not because we’re all human, but I’d bet there can be consensus by everyone on most issues.
Sustainability and design including LEED’s, "Green", underground parking, zoning changes, height and density will be key factors in any discussions.
With the approval of the citizen groups, how can the city, DRB, or the Planning Commission refuse your plans?
We recommend that you CONTACT THESE CITIZEN GROUPS:
COPP (Coalition of Pinnacle Peak)
Bob Vairo, president
coppeak@coppeak.org
COGS (Coalition Of Greater Scottsdale)
Sonnie Kirtley azsonnie@cox.net
Community Council of Scottsdale
Jerry Lennemann
jerrylenne@yahoo.com
Citizens for Responsible Redevelopment
Michael Merrill F8713@aol.com
Scottsdale Coalition
Nancy Cantor
nancyanncantor@cox.net
TOPS (The Other Plan for Scottsdale)
Sam West sam@samjwest.com
With the passing of the state mandated Dust Control Ordinance this week by the Scottsdale city council come a plethora of legitimate questions for both the council and the state Legislature to wrestle with over the next few months.
Why, when having to drive through clouds of blinding dust from the agriculture fields being plowed on the reservation which pollutes our homes and puts dusty grit in and on everything we own, do we have to make our "driveways" dust-free, and not use a blower to clean up leaves and dirt blown in from the reservation or from a thunderstorm?
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What is a "driveway"? The private roadway that leads to our home or garage? Any portion that can be used for animal husbandry such as the feeding of animals by motor vehicle, carrying them from one field to the barns or visa versa using a motor vehicle?
Why would a gas leaf blower be OK to use as long as you don’t blow the stuff onto the street? Whether you blow it onto the street on just into a corner in your yard, you are still creating "dust" in some form or the other.
If we use water to clean our property or knock down dust, we are using a precious resource we have been asked to conserve and are charged more for using more.
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If we use a broom, we again are kicking up dust even more than with a blower because the action lasts longer, takes more broom strokes and still leaves a mess.
Why is the city willing to take $2 million dollars in federal funds when in fact the city will have to pay out 4 times more to take care of just the city owned properties which require dust controls?
If the city paves or treats some of the dirt, gravel or other non-paved city roads, history clearly documents that the speeds of vehicles using those roadways will increase markedly causing a safety issue which is far worse than some desert dust.
The reality of the faulty decision of the State Legislature and the Scottsdale city council is that private land owners are going to pay the biggest penalties of all without recourse which is against the U.S. Constitution.
This entire subject needs to be revisited by the State Legislature as well as the Scottsdale City Council to assess the positives of the program as well as the actual costs to the public for enforcement and dust containment, and the prohibitive costs to private property owners which is not in anyone’s best interest.
We doubt seriously that any city council or state Legislature member took a close look at the long term public and private financial ramifications of this ill-advised legislation.
Any one member on the council who voted for this measure needs to put it back on the agenda for further discussion and clarification by the federal EPA & DEQ which will force the State Legislature to reassess the same rule themselves.
Let’s take this council vote back and do far more investigation, Please!!
Former city council member and nice guy Gregg Bielli would have you believe, according to his "My Turn" article in the March 27th Scottsdale Republic, that "divisive dialogue" will hinder the search for new city manager.
Let’s not forget where Gregg, who is a developer, is coming from—he wants a developer as a city manager:
Newland Communities, a developer of master-planned communities, promoted Greg Bielli to regional president, mountain region. Bielli is charged with overseeing planning, entitlements, sales, marketing and growth strategies; responsible for leading the operational success of Estrella in Goodyear, Colorado communities of Escavera in Castle Rock and Stonegate in Parker. In addition, he will supervise the process of identifying and managing acquisition opportunities for the company throughout Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Bielli joined the company as senior vice president of operations for Arizona in August. Before that, he was executive vice president of development for Medallist Developments Inc. of Jupiter, Fla. Before that he spent 17 years with MCO Properties as president, vice president and director of communications. Bielli is a graduate of the University of Arizona.
All of the above being taken into consideration, in the opinion of most common folk, the divisive dialogue comes directly from the developer-dominated DRB, Planning Commission, legal department and city council totally ignoring the taxpayers, the general plan, and other laws and ordinances--some of which were either were or were put in place while Bielli was a member of the council.
The major problem simply is secrecy and a total commitment to pave over the downtown by city staff, the council majority and some, but not all, city departments, and the developers. This all came into being due to and because of the needs of the mayor and her developer friends who put abhorrent profits from increasing height and density over civic interest.
Jan Dolan, with the council majority in full agreement and the rubber-stamp Robberson legal department there to say that everything proposed is legal, brought the style Manross needed to perfect, and then implement, the sordidly secret plan. To keep the plan in place, they forced many excellent, tenured employees to retire or quit. In the case of Jeff Fisher, they fired him for no reason found or discussed to date.
How would you feel if you were taken off city property by two department managers/directors to a public restaurant and interrogated on three separate occasions without any representation or witnesses to the episode? Well folks, it happened, and not just once during the Dolan "reign of terror".
Then they replaced numerous loyal employees, usually with far inferior, including some actually unqualified people solely because they were loyal to Dolan and Shearer. Those are the one’s you heard cheering when Dolan’s job was on the line during a televised city council meeting and they need to go, now.
What actually needs to happen is simple. Replace anyone on the council and on the staff who refuses to listen, and then implement reasonable ideas and desires of taxpaying residents.
We don’t need massive height and density, we need regulated growth with planned long term sustainability which bars and entertainment districts will never provide for any length of time because they rely on fads which come and go like the desert winds.
Make no mistake about it, height and density are driven by two, and only two considerations. First, they massively increase the profits of developers. Second, they will, in the future, serve as the justification for a multi-billion dollar light rail proposal.
We desperately need infrastructure updated and upgraded to handle the current load already dumped upon it by and out of touch council and staff.
We need the streets, curbs and gutters replaced in the older sections of town before we install any more pollution creating and vehicle damaging "traffic calming devices" especially roundabouts which are being torn down by many cities due to the horrendous costs for maintenance, repair, and damage and time robbing incident response times for city fire equipment and the police department.
We also need affordable housing for those who we hire to give the superb service we relish when we go out to dinner or to work in our medical facilities, at our community events or in our hotels. When you tear down affordable apartments so an investor can make a huge profit on the backs of the ousted residents, there is a major problem afoot which should not be allowed in Scottsdale.
Do you really want to stop "Divisive Dialogue?"
Replace the current council majority and one (1) remaining Charter Officers (city attorney) and some staff with good, honest people who will serve the public interest rather than the interest of developers who fund the campaigns of Council members and whose profits are the driving force behind decision making in the Kiva.
Replace the under qualified and misplaced employees hired by Dolan or promoted by Dolan’s choices for department heads with qualified employees who were blown off and left in the dust by Dolan and company because they didn’t agree with her way of running the city.
How do we do it?
VOTE in the September Election, and write letters to the council and the Scottsdale Activist expressing your ideas to fix the city!!!
~"….. It’s NOT about Money, But Instead, Safety"
Those have been the familiar and very public words spoken loudly and unmistakenly by our infamous mayor Mary Manross ever since the Freeway Cameras were installed.
Funny, the Scottsdale Tribune headline clearly states the opposite: "Speed cameras bring in $2 million profit, 200,000 citations".
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Are we all to believe that the mayor had no idea that there would be a profit? Oh PLEASE!! Spare us such nonsense! We at the Scottsdale Activist are certainly not that stupid and have been stating the obvious money making capabilities of the cameras for the same amount of time the cameras have been in use.
Again and again we see the double standard practiced by this mayor. It’s OK for her to tell her supposedly "little white lies" or "innocently" forget or claim to know the facts, while she chastises citizens publicly for voicing their very credible fact filled objections during city council meetings about what is wrong with what the mayor and council majority are doing and saying which are not in the city’s or residents best interest.
This mayor’s credibility is in the toilet and is continuing to fill that bowl with incredible, unfathomable, misinformation more and more every day of the week.
Wouldn’t it have been nice, albeit truly honest for her to have stated from the get-go that it was for safety but any profit would be solely targeted to pay for the operation for the police helicopters the voters approved in the 2000 election?
~ " ….. Another Magical(?) Hat Trick…."
Manross and company stuck their hands in the magic hat of Michael Crow and came up with what they think is a winner that will help them win their upcoming election.
Hmmm. How long has anyone known about these supposed "major" additions to SkySwindle?
Could it be the mayor and council majority are losing the election in the polls so they had to invent (come up with) something to pump up their failing reputations with the voters?
I guess we’ll have to wait and see what other "rabbits" they pull out of the empty hat before the election won’t we? Are you listening Larry?
Don’t you really wonder how soon they’ll have to eat "Crow"?
All 6 respondents in the Scottsdale Republic’s Saturday sound-off had varied ideas about the failure or lack of progress or a future for SkySong and rightfully so.
Although some of the company names have "retail" in them, there is ZERO taxable retail sales companies currently on lease at SkySong.
Although there are many companies who supposedly have signed leases, the number of employees actually working at the facility couldn’t keep a small 3 table diner busy at lunch time.
Michael Crow can "Crow" all he wants about his wonderful addition to the ASU family, but he won’t discuss the total lack of revenue to the taxpayers of Scottsdale from the most expensive and largest former tax producing commercial property in all of southern Scottsdale.
Michael Crow with the help of Mary Manross "cut the throat of a fat hog" in Scottsdale and the Scottsdale taxpayers are the bleeders paying the price for his ability to "Crow" nonsense to anyone who will listen.
The question keeps coming up: What does "sustainable development" mean?
You might be able to start with a dictionary definition, but you need to look beyond for how "sustainable development" is defined by organizations like The Urban Institute, The Rocky Mountain Institute, and The Lincoln Institute.
Yep, that sounds like a lot of homework just to live and vote in the City of Scottsdale, but you do not have to leave your home computer, or may be just trek down to the library, to get a handle on what redevelopment must incorporate today to benefit all for years to come.
Actually the issue of "sustainable development" was not new even with the international acknowledgement of growth and environment impacting one another in the 1980’s. We saw the first definition come about as:
Development which meets economic and social needs at the same time as safeguarding and improving the environment. Seems simple?
Fast forward a few years and the term "Smart Growth" becomes a part of the dialogue and the discussion gets broader and deeper. Not having the discussion brings serious problems, too.
Here in Arizona, our Legislature gave us the Growing Smarter Plus Act which requires citizen involvement and amending municipal General Plans every ten years.
When you hear about meetings taking place, like they are now for the Southern Scottsdale Planning Area and the Downtown Area, remember that you are invited to participate and if you can’t actually go to a meeting, call City Hall and put in your two cents worth. Contact the Advance Planning Team at 480-312-7990 or e-mail planninginfo@scottsdaleaz.gov.
Things you need to take into consideration are the 10 principles that the Smart Growth Network in Arizona have developed for communities to help guide them in planning:
Mix land uses
Take advantage of compact building design
Create a range of housing opportunities and choices
Create walkable neighborhoods
Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place
Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas
Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities
Provide a variety of transportation choices
Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective
Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions
Smart Growth is a continuous planning process and that is something that all "experts" in the field agree on, for neighborhood preservation, development or redevelopment of neighborhoods, communities and regions to promote the goals and ambitions of its residents. (From the Growing Smarter Plus Act)
That is you, your family (kids, too), your neighbors, the manager of the local grocery store, the doctor, the teachers, the police officers and firemen, oh and us at the Activist, too.
If you want something included in the Southern Scottsdale Area Planning process and can’t get to a meeting, send it to the
Editor@ScottsdaleActivist.com or
planninginfo@scottsdaleaz.gov.
Do it now……building heights, density, open space (parks, building setbacks, space between buildings), lighting, landscaping, green building, water use, and infrastructure (sewers, water supply, electrical, gas, streets, street lighting, traffic patterns, modes of transport), housing needs and anything that is important to you.
Questions from readers for which the community needs answers from the city regarding increased building height and density:
What kind of urban heat environment are we creating by increasing building height to 5 stories, or the proposed eight stories, in Scottsdale?
Before we bring more high-rise condos on line shouldn’t we know what kind of impact they will have on the surrounding community and energy consumption for heating and cooling?
Who pays the price to update the infrastructure to allow it to accept the additional load put on it with height and density?
How many of our new luxury condominium developments in Downtown meet or exceed LEED standards and how were they required to show they meet the LEED and Green Building guidelines during the approval process?
What steps is Scottsdale taking to deal with the current air pollution issues South of Indian Bend Road?
Has Scottsdale done noise/decibel studies along Scottsdale Road south of Indian Bend Road? Hayden Road? Pima Road? How does Scottsdale keep track of noise pollution and from where it is originating?
Why do most of the developers continue to use the current downtown plan as the crutch to include non-down town residential areas out side of the general plan area as part of their projects which they know are highly objectionable?
Why do the council members who are running for re-election continue to disregard the wishes of the residents and taxpayers of Scottsdale? Don’t they realize that their win or loss in the upcoming election totally equates to the way they are voting on sensitive issues including spending, height, density, and the amount of growth necessary to make the city sustainable far into the future?
Why are we narrowing roadways and installing traffic calming when it has been proved that these vehicular obstructions increase pollution and maintenance costs for the city? Taking away or narrowing instead of adding new lanes of traffic is totally counterproductive to establishing a sustainable and bright future for the city of Scottsdale.
~Letters to the Editor
letters@scottsdaleactivist.com
~ Good Morning Council Members:
I was appalled to read various stories relative to your vacillating inaction in the matter of firing the poorly performing Ms. Dolan. Her inept and incompetent performance was legendary and had a long, sad, expensive to the Taxpayer cost. While there are several on the Council, along with The Mayor, who are considered 'tone deaf', it was felt that you had something going for you. Unfortunately, we may be wrong.
The severance package given Ms. Dolan is an outrage. There is no reason to craft this since it is clear that she was fired 'for cause'. I guess the only thing we can say is that you did not embarrass yourself, as our clueless Mayor once again did, by advising her distress at something that was long overdue.
It is important that you understand the use and misuse of Taxpayer Funds.
The Arizona Republic/Scottsdale Republic showed its smarmy nature by genuflecting on how wonderful the past eight years have been under the tutelage of Ms. Dolan. We can only assume that this stance was taken to assure flow of ad dollars from the City of Scottsdale. This wasteful ad spending must stop immediately.
Sincerely,
Steve Rivero-Lowen
Scottsdale
~ Citizen Supports Little, Another Doesn't
Mike, I personally disagree with your assessment of the interim City Manager assignment to John Little. He has been an excellent administrator with our City of Scottsdale Ambassador Program expansion and re-organization. He not only asks for input from we "underlings", but he encourages recommendations then immediately either makes it happen or assists us in making it happen.
He has been totally assessable for personal meetings, quick appointments or by cellular phone. It has been a very positive experience for me for the years that he has led the Downtown Group, that John Little values and respects the methods by which someone else organizes a city program. When the agreement is on the RESULT and the administrator steps out of the way---positive and effective programs happen....and those involved are more prone to contribute at a higher level.
I'm confident that he will be a good interim City Manager. Meanwhile, you can be assured that this City will spend thousands of dollars either on another high-paid Head Hunter or to send specific City Council members to multiple cities to interview prospective permanent City Managers.
Respectfully,
Sonnie Kirtley
40 plus year resident of in-town Scottsdale
Mike’s Response
Thanks Sonnie,
Everybody is entitled to there opinion and that is always a good thing as none of us are always going to agree however for the record once again, I like John on a personal level and find he is good people.
My contention with him being city manager for what will inevitably be well over a year in this city is that he has no experience in running an entire city let alone one with as many problems as this and as well as being nearly 2 billion in debt. While it is one thing to have been running a program in Downtown it is a whole new ballgame to be trying to run an entire city and when you have a person who does not have any background in this area you are just asking for trouble.
While I hope your opinion is on the mark about this issue I am not quite prepared to follow that same path.
I like John, but I do not think he is qualified to be running the city.
Respectfully,
Michael Merrill
South Scottsdale Resident since 1965
Living in the Land of Oz by Nancy Cantor
Mike has taken a deserved vacation from Oz, but I dug through the closet and found my map of the Emerald City. So, I saddled the Umpa Lumpa and set out to see what I could see and write about in hopes of filling the void.
Let it be said that Mike’s reporting about OZ will never be met or surpassed. It might well be milder mannered, less knowledgeable about many details of certain issues, and not as direct, so just bear with me on this.
What I can tell you is that before taking his vacation Mike, once again brought home the vital importance of Code Enforcement and how personally proud of his South Scottsdale neighborhood he is and how seriously he takes the words "good neighbor."
It came as no surprise to me, but it might to his detractors. Across the street from Hohokam Elementary School there is a rental property that has been problematic for some years. Cutting the grass, pulling the weeds and maintaining the exterior of the property are things any home owner knows you do on a regular basis.
This is not the only owner who lives out of state and couldn’t care less about those things or even less about the city in which they own income property from which they gain monthly remuneration. There are usually no stipulations in the contract for the specifics of property maintenance.
Renters do not consider it, either.
The Oak Street property is an example of that thought process. It is not new; in fact the Neighborhood Enhancement Commission has tried to deal with it for years with limited success.
~ Mike, the Unknown but Consummate Humanitarian
So, Mike, knowing the length of time it takes to solve the issues of overgrowth, and knew the City meeting was coming up in a few days, put the lawnmower in his truck and went to Oak Street and took care of the problem yard himself.
This is the same Mike, who takes care of the yards of his elderly neighbors and then takes even more of his precious time to be a "dreaded community activist", at least in a few peoples’ eyes. He does have a full time job and a wife and family and hopefully, right now, he is spending a bit more much needed time with them.
With the Umpa Lumpa firmly in tow, we set off to view this community that is looking at a possible referendum on the Hanover Project, as well as elections for City Council and Mayor come next September.
I don’t know whose idea it was to move those elections to September, but it does not sit well with many residents. Remembering that in the summer many people leave the Valley to get out of the heat, and this is especially true in Scottsdale, who is going to be here from June through August to campaign or to listen to campaign gibberish?
Our City Council takes off July through most of August. During a normal year you can’t find too many Council people around the City to do the business of the people. I wonder if they will miraculously arrange to be in town this summer to campaign amongst the people?
The other thing I heard on my many wandering through the City is that most people believe that the Hanover Company will try everything possible to keep the voice of the people from being heard. The comment heard the loudest was, "Why didn’t they wait for the revisions to the Downtown Plan to come out in early April? Who is approving these things with such disregard for the process that is taking place?"
Well, at this point I had to climb down from the Umpa Lumpa and promise to take him straight back to Mike.
Umpa Lumpa related as how he has heard those questions as many times as Mike has and just how much stress did I think he had to endure? Umpa Lumpa was very kind as he made no deposits along the way, so I was compelled to return him post haste without launching into explanations to one and all about Planning Commissioners and developers and processes and procedures and policies and politics.
Actually, I have no explanations as to the "whys" for what the gets approved. Not too many people do. We know that the Planning Commission and the City Council do not make decisions for redevelopment according to the guidelines in the General Plan. Sadly, no one has challenged either body on some of these points to do so, either.
To say that Hanover has made enemies among the average citizen is putting it very mildly. Hanover employees’ tactics during the petition signature drive, while excused by their attorney as just typical campaign strategy, was not appreciated.
There are a good many residents who did not like the attorney’s cavalier attitude about their vote. They also did not like the expressed concern for the First Amendment while forcibly denying others their First Amendment rights at the same time.
That First Amendment is a knotty issue that most of Hanover’s employees did not want to discuss at length with citizens trying to sign petitions.
OK citizens of OZ, I have abused you long enough and the Umpa Lumpa is restive.
Nancy Cantor
nancyanncantor@cox.net
~ Cantoni's Confab
by Craig Cantoni~ Extremely offensive remarks about blacks
By Craig J. Cantoni
March 19, 2008
Below in italics are some extremely offensive remarks about blacks. It’s no coincidence that they are similar in tone, content, bigotry and ignorance to what Reverend Jeremiah Wright said about whites. That’s because I took the reverend’s racist themes and turned them around to apply to blacks instead of whites. And like the reverend, I made no attempt to put anything in historical context.
As you read the comments, imagine what would happen if they were said by a white preacher. Better yet, imagine what would happen if it were revealed that John McCain had attended the preacher’s services and been a close friend of the preacher for 20 years. Not only would McCain’s presidential campaign be over, but his political career would be over.
The comments are so volatile that I asked a black friend if I should publish them. He answered, “This is a powerfully apt presentation and I concur wholeheartedly. Put it on the airwaves.” (A brilliant email from him on Obama’s race speech is printed separately below this article.)
Even with my friend’s blessing, some prefatory remarks are in order: First, it would take many pages to list what I did in the 1970s to fight for equal rights for blacks and what I learned from working for, and with, industrious blacks as a teenager in the mid-1960s, before the Great Society put blacks on the government plantation. (To earn extra money, I even washed and waxed the big Pontiacs and Buicks of my black coworkers while wishing that my working-class parents didn’t drive a rusted junker.) Second, my personal belief is that all humans, regardless of race, have the same inherent intelligence and the same propensity for good and evil. Third, all races would have the same record of good and evil, and of conquest and oppression, if their geographic and historic circumstances had been the same.
As the following shows, that’s not what the Rev. Wright believes, and that’s what makes him and his ilk such a danger to civil society.
* * *
It’s good to see so many of God’s chosen white people here today for Sunday service. As the Bible says, Jesus was white and was killed by black people.
It’s no accident, then, that the AIDS epidemic began in
If it were left to the African pharmaceutical industry to develop drugs to treat AIDS, there would be no drugs to treat AIDS. That’s because there is no African pharmaceutical industry. Come to think of it, what are blacks known for?
When whites were building cathedrals, blacks were running around in loin cloths and with bones through their noses. When whites were writing great literature and inventing the printing press, blacks were dancing around a fire outside of their huts. When whites were using reason to solve the mysteries of the universe, blacks were obeying witch doctors.
It took whites to end slavery in
Today, it’s going to take whites to stop sub-Saharan Africans from slaughtering each other over tribal differences. And it’s going to take whites to stop African-Americans from having babies out of wedlock, from killing each other, from killing themselves with obesity, from depending on the government, and from dropping out of school.
Yes, it’s a white man’s burden. But if you don’t do it, blacks won’t do it for themselves.
In closing, let me recognize a close friend in the audience. Senator McCain, thank you for your support.
An author and columnist, Mr. Cantoni can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.
~
Council and Mayoral Candidates
Information
Any candidate is welcome to send us information as long as it concerns their position on issues and is kept as short and to the point as possible. We will not go out looking for candidate information, it's up to the candidate to supply us with the information at editor@scottsdaleactivist.com . We get enough diatribes from the Dias as it is. Pontification is discouraged, just the facts please. The Scottsdale Activist does not endorse candidates for election but will suggest options for Ballot measures.
Please send information in MS Word format so it is easily added to the website. If we find we are getting too much information from any candidate, we will limit the amount posted by removing the oldest posting first.
Just click on a candidates name to bring up information tendered to the Scottsdale Activist for public distribution.
If there is information in the file, the name will be underlined.
~ Jim Lane
~ Lisa Borowsky
~ Joel Bramoweth
~Richard Mueller
"If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it?"
-- Benjamin Franklin (to Thomas Paine, Date Unknown)
"We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."
—C.S. Lewis
"Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one
less scoundrel in the world."
—Thomas Carlyle
"The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into
politicians."
—Benjamin Disraeli
"Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, howe’er contented,
never know."
—William Cowper
"I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral
slob."
—William F. Buckley
~Shout and Spout ~
~While we wait for the next step in this process to occur we would ask that the Hanover people work with all of the current tenants, extending their lease terms when possible rather than putting up chain link fence and allowing the property to decay, becoming a blight on the downtown. As a community we have experienced years of this purposeful blighting with Los Arcos and are expecting the same at Orchid Tree Apartments, as that property deteriorates, while it could have remained occupied providing reasonably priced housing to many.
~ Amy Ganley is right on target,. We've been sold down the river again by our "competent" city council and mayor.
~ Eric Kenney of the Hanover Project must be a real jerk. No one with any brains would turn an entire city against them when the residents of the city have spoken as we have with the referendum. Maybe Kenney was sold a bill of goods by his "Hired Guns" Technical Solutions and John Berry, then it all blew up in their faces. Suggestion: Eric, save money by firing your attorney, retooling your project fit the current zoning, height and density regulations and let the referendum go to a vote so you don’t piss off even more tax paying citizens than you have already. Your reputation has been pretty much sullied already don’t you think?
~ Has anyone seen Council Candidate Suzanne Klapp at any of the Citizen Forums where we can see what she’s all about? The only thing I know is that she’s going to be sponsored by the Scottsdale Chamber and being handled by Susan Bitter-Smith which is a big negative in my mind. Until she pops up from the underground, she’s an also ran who never shows up to be properly vetted and questioned. Is she afraid of the questions?
~The main reason Scottsdale traffic is not as smooth as before is that Paul Basha who was our brilliant traffic engineer for years, left Scottsdale because of Tyrant Jan Dolan. Traffic management has never been the same.
~It's a very sad state of affairs when someone so out of touch and out of the loop city-wide such as John Little, who has given many favors to downtown developers and brought the drunks and punks to Scottsdale is to be chosen to manage our city, even as an interim manager. This is very simply a dirty "Little" last ditch effort by Manross and company to try to make sure her pet projects (probably even the first steps to lite rail) are completed before she and her entourage are run out of town on one of the last remaining stagecoaches she forgot to discard in favor of glitz, glamour, drunks, punks and ZERO sustainability. David Ellison is a good choice for interim city manager so we can see if he is really qualified to serve as city manager which we all know John "developer favors" Little isn't by any stretch of anyone's wildest imagination.
~ The only thing I regret about moving into the county is that I can’t help you guys get rid of Manross and her minions. Do they still allow the citizens to tar and feather someone and ride them out of town on a (Phoenix light) rail? Even that would be too good for Manross, Robberson, O’Connor, Gray and Shearer!!!
~I have managed property in downtown for a number of years. John Little may be pleasant to work with but he has no apparent interest in the vitality of downtown except for payment of lip service. Most all downtown municipal resources have been redirected form the specialty districts and allocated to support the new projects such as Unger’s under John watch. I find him to be ineffective at best….. but a nice enough guy. That is my personal opinion.
~ So the Employee Survey proved the Activist to be right again! Why is it that the Activist "scoops" all the local media on lot's of stuff and the council has no clue what's going on. Must be tough being as clueless as most of the council is, of course with Debbie as your legal advisor, it's fully understandable.
~I have known John Little since he was Herb's aide and during the short period of time after he came back to Scottsdale and tried to start his own business, and then again as he has come back to Scottsdale before he became head of Downtown, while he was heading up Transportation. Nice enough person, but not responsive to general community......I am worried.
~Did you all forget that John Little was in charge of all Transportation for the entire city at one time? That certainly had to be a city-wide experience during our usual "troubled" transportation issues, studies, and decisions and that is why I have reservations although John apparently does not favor light rail. That moves him to the top of my hit parade. As others have pointed out, he is accessible. He will listen to your side with respect. I've known him since the mid-eighties. Yes, he is something of an Establishment person with a heavy dose of that Total Quality Management nonsense, but he's a pretty good guy. The real solution is not to worry about John but to get rid of Manross and Robberson.
Hanover project executives: Go back to Texas, your bland, over height, overly dense plans don’t fit Scottsdale.
~ Dust - Shmust!! I have never seen such a stupid move made by the council as when they approved this ridiculous dust thing sent down by the state. The 101 is sometimes blinded by dust from the farms on the reservation but we can’t have dust. Supposedly, the feds are not supposed to dictate to the states, but ahh yes, they can offer money to get what they want. The problem is that with federal money comes even more control by the feds. No thanks, but a nice try. Hey Littlefield, bring that issue back to the floor, rescind the vote to accept the state dictates and have the council confer with the state and the feds as to exactly what the feds really want. Editors Note: We need to point out that Bob Littlefield voted against the dust issue and therefore cannot bring it back for reconsideration. It has to be brought back by Drake, Ecton, Manross, or Lane who voted in favor of it to be reconsidered. So, Contact one or all of them to get it reconsidered.
I have read the employee survey. Neal Shearer was the go to guy for Dolan with Robberson and Gray as their soldiers. Get rid of all three, then Manross, Lane, McCullagh and especially Drake at election time and maybe we can get back on track. I really like what I hear and see concerning Nan Nesvig. This gal’s got spunk and knows what she’s talking about which the others don’t from what I’ve seen of them. Maybe we can bring back the likes of Jeff Fisher, Doug Flack and some of the others who were tops at their jobs but were railroaded out by Dolan, Shearer and Gray.
~The 545 People
Responsible For America's Woes
By Charley Reese:
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code. Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy. Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 300 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason, they have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton- picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
A CONFIDENCE CONSPIRACY Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a SPEAKER, who stood up and criticized G.W. BUSH for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow Democrats, not the president, can approve any budget they want.
If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto. REPLACE THE SCOUNDRELS
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility.
I can't think of a single domestic problem, from an unfair tax code to defense overruns, that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.
When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.
Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exist disembodied mystical forces like 'the economy,' 'inflation' or 'politics' that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess.
Editors Note: It would appear that this would also apply to the politics in Scottsdale don’t you think?
If you are going to pass something along?, Let it be THIS!
To whom it all concerns:
Just a word to the wise.
E-mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other municipality. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address. Same with "prayer chains" -- be wary.
Almost all e-mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards All it was, and all this type of e-mail is, is to get names and "cookie" tracking info for telemarketers and spammers to validate active e-mail accounts for their own purposes.
Anytime you see an e-mail that says forward this on to "10" of your friends, sign this petition, or you'll get good luck, or what ever, it has either an
e-mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and e-mails of those folks you forward to, or the host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of "active" e-mails to use in spam e-mails, or sell to others that do.Please forward this notice to others and you will be providing a good service to your friends, and will be rewarded by not getting 30,000 spam e-mails in the future.
(If you have been sending out the above kinds of email, now you know why you get so much spam!)
Check it out:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer /petition/internet.htmJust click on the logos below to go to these websites.
Send our Brave Troops "Something from Home", Click on Links below.
Gathering of Eagles Website was launched 2/9/07. Click on the Logo above for more information on how they are protecting America's Memorials.
~ UPDATE!! A "Must See" for All Americans
Every American should check out all of these websites to learn more about what the American population is about to have to deal with.
This is NOT for Children.
I don't normally allow anything but Scottsdale information in the Scottsdale Activist but after receiving many emails about this and viewing it, I think that it's imperative that every adult at least look at what's offered here if for nothing more than their own education and to have everyone stop and think about the future of our country. Click on the link below,
If you don't have Adobe Flash, install it from the bottom of the page that comes up after you click on the link above. You should be able to view all available links within the main page.
The website below is of great interest as seen from a Lebanese point of view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8fa9yKQeTY
The website below gives some history of Terrorist attacks:
http://patriotfiles.org/civilizationcalls.htm
This website tell you what REALLY happened:
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened
~ Arizona Tax Revolt
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Prop13Arizona
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