We keep hearing that the newly appointed City Manager John Little may have bitten off much more than he knew existed behind the scenes and deep in the bowels of Scottsdale city government. Every time he turns around or opens a file he finds still another mess left for him or someone to clean up by Manross and company. Some cannot be corrected because of an ineffective and overstaffed city legal department and what we deem an incompetent City Attorney.

We heard that there are going to be many major management and personnel changes to get the city back on track using the philosophy of Herb Drinkwater. We have yet to see anything along those lines occur.

We know that Code Enforcement has major problems that can only be corrected with mass firings or resignation, reassignments, the hiring of competent and qualified Management based on the original qualifications pre-Dolan, and some intensive retraining of the remaining trainable inspectors and office staff by knowledgeable trainers. We would suggest hiring back some of the seasoned Inspectors or Managers who were either fired or urged to move on or be fired like Jeff Fisher, Doug Flack, Tom Rief and others who are highly qualified and loved working for the city of Scottsdale and with her citizens.

Planning and Inspection Services is totally over manned with inspectors reportedly having to make up excuses why they are in certain locations and make up work that may not exist at all. The building boom is over and the planning and inspections department staff needs to be cut by 3/4ths leaving only a very few inspectors who are well trained and are self starters who answer to the planning department. The inspections and survey department is very top-heavy with management and that situation needs to be corrected immediately as a cost cutting measure by removing or retiring Department Director Ralph Noriega (who has had serious problems and accusations filed against him) and his assistant, then moving the remainder of the staff to other positions within the planning department. We will have to see how the new General Manager of Planning David Richert does in his new position before we can assess his planning section.

The City Auditor Department needs to hire a competent and independent auditor with a strong and seasoned work ethic and the super honesty of Cheryl Dreska. When we lost Dreska due to constant badgering by Councilman Ecton and Jan Dolan as well as an "increasingly serious health problem", we lost a major contributor to the inventory and cost controls we desperately need in this city. Since her retirement, many new issues have been found which attribute to the loss of city equipment which translates into lost taxpayer dollars. Dreska did her very best to stop these issues when she located them with many department managers doing everything possible to stop or hinder her audits because they probably knew she was expert enough to catch their foibles. Code Enforcement had an audit which tallied 26 major problems as I remember and I doubt that has improved much since. We’re told by insiders that Department Manager Hankins has just created mountains of paperwork to make it more difficult to catch the errors.

The Transportation Department under General Manager Mary O’Connor, has "studied" things into oblivion and beyond with only limited public input when demanded by citizens. She has spent more taxpayer dollars on neighborhood entry islands, special items to reduce traffic use forcing it out to the busier streets and many other non-sensical installations such as the pedestrian/bicycle crossing on Camelback east of Hayden in the middle of the Indian Bend Wash less than 600 feet from a very usable and signal controlled crosswalk at Hayden. On the other hand, she and her puppet Paul Purell have flatly refused to paint lines on 86^th Street from Chaparral to McDonald where there is a school in the mix while south of Chaparral and north of McDonald 86^th Street is has lines and no schools. Those lines had been there for decades pre-Dolan and O’Connor. This department needs a total reorganization also with the removal of O’Connor and Purell as a first step to get the department back on course and back to stark reality in spending and construction.

The City Legal Department needs a total overhaul beginning with the firing or immediate resignation of Deborah Robberson and the hiring of someone who is independent enough that they won’t kowtow to the city council or the city manager like Robberson does on a regular basis. The City Attorney is hired to keep the city, the council and mayor, and the departments under those entities safe from financial losses and other legal threats caused by bad financial choices or bad legal decisions by the legal department. Robberson has been a party to far too many tens of millions of dollars being unnecessarily expended because of Robberson’s failure to use available legal information and lack of personal expertise to stop the constant bleeding of taxpayers dollars. The legal department has more employees per capita than any city in the valley, and in addition, hires even more outside attorneys to do work the current employed staff should be competent enough to handle on their own.

We have found all other departments within the city to be very well managed with some such as street maintenance under funded but still frugal. The street and traffic operations sections should be relocated under the Transportation Department so "like can work with like" so to speak. Why Street Operations and Traffic Operations are now under Municipal Services still escapes us when they are specific to Transportation.

Yes, John Little has his work cut out for him and have the confidence in him for him to do that job effectively. On the same note, we as taxpayers need to see these changes he makes be significant, productive, time & money saving, and not politically motivated as they were under Jan Dolan. We feel John can do the job effectively, we just need to hear and see the fruits of his labor sooner than later.

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Most have felt all along that Pima County would "punt" on the multiple charges against the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce because it was the safest thing for them to do politically. After all, the case was held up until after the election, the Chamber didn’t get everyone they wanted in the elections. So, no damage – no foul.

Well, it seems that Laurie Roberts of the Scottsdale Republic and many citizens felt it was a white-wash and a done deal from the get-go because of the massive political ramifications possible.

On the other hand, Lane’s campaign and others have also filed a civil suit against the Chamber asking for clarification and possibly forcing the state to clarify the state laws concerning such controversies. A possible positive would be the win for Lane and the others in the civil action.

Leave it to the attorneys to figure out a way to force something as simple as "corporations cannot print anything which supports specific candidates" to something as complicated as it became. ……and you wonder why attorney make a lot of money???

Any layman fully understands that the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce is a Corporation by law and therefore subject to the election rules governing corporations. That’s true unless you have deep pockets and can throw enough money at it to make it seem questionable to a politically savvy court or lawyer.

We, as do many others, wonder how much money the Chamber, Rick Kidder, and their members threw at their problem and from whom the hundreds of thousands of dollars came????

We also wonder how many of the Chamber members agreed with the using of members money to try to "buy" the election?

Maybe one consolation of this political joke is that Mayor Jim Lane, being one of the Chambers election target, will not be kind or open to anything suggested by the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce during his term as mayor.

Or maybe the Civil Action will reap some rewards of it's own; possible a clarification by the State, or fines which would go directly to the Plaintiffs and their attorneys.

Below are articles from the Scottsdale Republic on the subject:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/02/23/20090223sr-finance0225.html

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/LaurieRoberts/47065

http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/2009/02/25/20090225sr-chamber0227.html

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~ On Code Enforcement: Unprofessional

Preface to this Article: We sent all of this information to the City Manager as well as all city entities involved including many council members, or those who might be interested. No one responded so we felt we would now make the entire file public.

It seems to most that the Code Enforcement Department has devolved from an open, highly trained, responsive, and customer friendly unit with five (5) inspectors into a disheveled, disorganized and unprofessionally managed organization with fifteen (15) inspectors who are poorly trained for the most part, responsive only to certain entities and citizens, and very poor in their customer service and personal discussions with the residents as demanded by Hankins. It has also been charged that Department Manager Malcolm Hankins is unwilling to accept prior approval as authentic due to poor or nonexistent file retention among other issues as documented by the City Auditor. In their last audit, Code Enforcement had over 26 serious violations as we remember.

There are a few of us who have tried to work hand in hand with Code Enforcement to make things better and clean up the city. For a while pre-Hankins and Dolan, things were getting better by the month. After Jan Dolan and Malcolm Hankins came on board with Hankins being named Field Manager, it all started going to hell in a hand basket so to speak.

The personal contacts with residential violators ceased, the neighborhood sweeps happened less and less often and probably don’t exist today, and Hankins was never in the field even though his title was "Field Manager". According to many sources inside and outside the department, he came to work between 8:30 and 9am, spent his day in his office on his computer leaving for the "field" at between 3 and 4 pm every day. Funny thing though, not one of his or other city employees ever saw him in the field nor did he ever tell them where he could be located if needed.

Step forward into today’s department:

Malcolm Hankins in now the Department Manager. Under the old requirements for the position, a Bachelors Degree in a related field was required as well as a minimum of four years of related experience. He didn’t qualify under those rules shown below;

So the requirements were changed by Dolan to supposedly fit Hankins qualifications as shown below..

Any combination of education and experience equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree in Planning, Public or Business Administration or a related field, and four years of recent experience in neighborhood preservation and revitalization with a focus on zoning enforcement and code compliance required. Recent experience managing and leading professional, technical, and clerical personnel required. Must obtain AACE Certification within one year from date of hire.

This departments management qualifications were drastically reduced bringing in far less qualified personnel as were a number of other department management qualifications because of Jan Dolan according to some insiders at the time, and these qualification still shouldn’t have qualified Hankins!! The city had current employees at the time who were far more qualified than Malcolm Hankins ever was or will be the way he is going.

Exactly what were Hankins qualifications at the time of his promotion to Field Manager? We cannot find that exact information anywhere but have it on good authority from insiders that he had between 12 and 16 city college credits and those were in Theology which did not meet any of the education requirements. We also learned that apparently his job in Phoenix was with Raun Keagy, was not management, and was a code inspector for weed abatement that again didn’t fulfill the requirements. We haven’t been able to prove that information to date. If the above is as true as represented to us, Malcolm Hankins was not then and is not now qualified for the position he currently holds, and it would reason that Raun Keagy is to blame for this miscarriage of employment decisions.

To see the actual Job Sheets for Job 1844 as offered in 7-05 and the newly revised and dumbed down one in 9-06, click on the links below :

7-05 Job Qualifications

9-06 Job Qualifications

As of today, there are four (4) major problem areas in the Code Enforcement that should be of major importance to all citizens of Scottsdale.

The first on the list would be the again deterioration and lack of attention to the residential areas and retail strip centers south of the canal on Indian Bend Road by the current set of inspectors.

Mike Merrill and I as well as many others are well aware of the problems and have tried to let it ride to see of John Little, David Ellison, Raun Keagy, or Malcolm Hankins were going to catch on to what was or wasn’t being done. Apparently, all four (4) officials are all preoccupied with what they apparently determine to be more serious problems with budget reductions, staffing, and city hall problems.

Mike Merrill, another resident and I will be taking lots and lots of pictures of major residential and strip center violations so we can each make a 3 minute slide presentation to the city council in front of the TV cameras to emphasize the unacceptable extent of the massive failure of the Code Enforcement Department to effectively perform their tasks. It won’t be a pretty picture folks. So with that said, we’ll start below with other problems that currently exist.

Carriage Hills Subdivision located in North Scottsdale at about Pinnacle Peak and 90^th Streets has an HOA, which is and has been chaired by one David Froehlich for years. Mr. Froehlich apparently also owns Dave Froehlich Realty in Scottsdale because his home address as listed in the Maricopa County Records is also listed as the address for his real estate company according to a Google search.

In late 2007, Someone in the HOA whose names we know but will not divulge at this time, reportedly called, then met with City Code Inspector Michelle Bruce and suggested she write violations on 44 properties for failure to keep the property clean and trimmed. She wrote all 44 violations without inspecting the properties or knowing that the 44 properties that she cited were all covered by the NAOS and ESLO restrictions that disallows trimming of native plants and trees except when they become a fire hazard because they have died or are dried out and have become flammable. She also had no idea of the NAOS and ESLO plant and tree restrictions for the subdivision.

The official city diagram (below) from that date shows the green dots to the lots on which the violations were issued. Note that she didn’t write violations on other properties outside this particular subdivision controlled by Froehlich and his HOA board. After a firestorm of protests, it was found that all of the violations were erroneous, should not have been written, and at which time Mr. Keagy cancelled and made null, void, and no longer of record all of those erroneous citations.

This proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that Ms. Bruce is untrained and unqualified to serve this or any area of the city as a Code Enforcement Inspector. She reportedly had similar as well as other problems while assigned to other areas before she was demoted and moved to the northern reaches of the city. Why would Keagy move an apparently problem inspector to an other area decidedly "safer" work-wise instead of terminating that inspector for failing to do the job properly?

This HOA has Zero community area yet Mr. Froehlich and his board had reportedly approved the use of HOA funds to chemically denude his non-HOA owned private property in direct violation of the CC&R’s and Scottsdale NAOS and ESLO laws and ordinances. The chemicals used for the denuding process could have reportedly washed down stream denuding the wash area below Mr. Froehlich’s property causing that wash to be denuded also which is indicated by the aerial map of his property as shown below.

Mr. Froehlich as a Real Estate professional, and his HOA board openly and knowingly approved the planting of plants that do not prescribe to the restricted NAOS and ESLO requirements for allowable plants in those areas.

As a Real Estate professional, it is incumbent upon Mr. Froehlich and it is his fiduciary responsibility to know every single law and ordinance pertaining to any and all properties he represents and that includes his fiduciary responsibilities as an HOA Chairman.

After this illegality was pointed out to Mr. Froehlich, he and his HOA Board had the unmitigated gall to ask that the city change the allowed plant/tree list to conform to the plants and trees he and his HOA board illegally approved in his HOA area. The plant and tree list has been updated by Dan Worth dworth@scottsdaleaz.gov of the city but still does not and will not include the plants Froehlich and his HOA board ask to be included. So now he is asking for a special hearing before the DRB to demand that the DRB approve or "grandfather in" the plants that are not legal for his HOA and were planted well after the ordinances and laws were put into force in the NAOS and ESLO areas.

We’re sure we haven’t heard the last of this issue, but we and many others intend to be at the meeting they will have with the DRB to strongly protest their petition bringing forward publicly his legal and fiduciary responsibility as a real estate agent and HOA chairman to strictly follow the laws, ordinances, and special restrictions affecting his HOA and his private property specifically to the letter for their subdivision.

Since the above incident or incidents, Code Inspector David Pino reportedly cited a number of properties for having foliage hanging a mere 8 to 12 inched outside the fence lines into the roadway area but not obstructing the roadway in any way. But, Diaz didn’t cite any of the dozens of properties in violation of the allowable plant and tree list. When asked by residents why he wasn’t citing the residents with the illegal plants and trees, his answer reportedly was that it was the HOA’s responsibility and he knew nothing about a restricted plant or tree list anyway.

Here is yet another glaring example of the failure of Department Manager Malcolm Hankins to properly train Code Enforcement Inspectors and we have tons of other examples we’ll report if and when it becomes necessary.

This issue came to our attention about a month ago but has apparently been going on since the fall of 2008. It seems that Code Inspector David Diaz cited the Scottsdale Gun Club for having three (3) steel storage units on their property. These steel units were pre-approved in 2004 by Jeff Fisher and Mike Milillo of Planning and Inspection Services when the Gun Club was just being opened. Fisher and Milillo even went as far as providing the exact manner in which the units needed to be installed to meet city standards without using parking spaces, then inspected and approved the units. The units don’t take up parking spaces as most others in the area do and they are painted to match the building as recommended by Fisher and Milillo. See pictures below.

Jeff Fisher was fired by Neal Shearer without cause and Mike Milillo who was discussed with the entire operation moved to another city who really appreciates his great talent. Code Inspector Doug Flack inspected the Scottsdale Gun Club property on September 5^th 2006 performing a full "360" of the property looking for a reported sign violation or any other violations that might exist and the only violation he found was a portable sign in a landscaped median buffer in the private parking lot which they immediately removed (we have a signed copy of the violation on file in our office). We have discussed this case with Flack and he knew of the approval for the units by Fisher and Milillo and felt that they were an excellent example of how those types of units should be installed. Doug Flack was fired by Neal Shearer also without cause after being interrogated about Jeff Fisher without representation by Shearer and Frank Gray at an IHOP restaurant.

We took a short one (1) hour drive around north Scottsdale close to the Scottsdale Gun Club and found the same type of storage containers everywhere. The worst offender is the city itself with units in many city locations, the Hayden at FLW water plant, and the CAP Sports Center.

The latest twist is that the city, to apparently cover the Diaz total screw-up on the inspection, apparently ordered S/W Gas to have the Gun Club either move one of the units away from their gas line or shut off the gas service. To move the units as requested would cost the Club ^$6,000 dollars and that is totally unnecessary and unwarranted, so they have regrettably had the Gas company disconnect the gas line to their business which will cause a hardship on them.

S/W Gas installed the gas system in 2003/2004 at least 36" below where the steel unit is located and has been reading and calibrating the meter since 2004 and never said a word to the Club about it being a problem until Hankins and his cronies stuck their nose into it without any legal reason to do so. There hasn’t been an inspection from the Fire Department calling the gas meter or the location of the steel unit a problem either because there is a thick concrete wall on one side of the meter and solid steel on the other with easy fire suppression access from both ends. These steel units do not hold ammunition or anything incendiary at any time. The owners were and are fully aware that should the gas company have a need to work on the gas line, the gun club would have to pay to have the steel unit temporarily moved. Being that the said gas line has a life in excess of 50+ years, no one sees a problem with the location of the steel unit. Go figure. Apparently it is a "Power Thing" for Hankins, and there can be no other rational or legal explanation for his actions.

A local commercial property owner who has been a city resident and taxpayer of over 35 years has been trying for years to take one of his properties and put together a historical project called the Charles Miller Square on one small city block he owns. It will incorporate the home Charles Miller lived in along with other memorable older period homes that will be updated to meet code, fire safety requirements, then be used as quaint offices, shops, and a sit-down style café/restaurant with pleasant and refreshing walking and sitting areas. What better an addition to the Downtown Area than that kind of upscale quality project with a solid historical connection?

He could have built a high end residential/office tower that would have brought him wheelbarrows full of dollars but instead he felt the city needed to remember its heritage from the likes of Charles Miller and he is ready to help with that goal. He will realize a vision in lieu of the massive amounts of dollars that most other landowners cherish because of their greed and blind personal needs. With the economy the way it is, the Charles Miller Square will be the only successful project in all of downtown!!

The DRB presentation on Charles Miller Square is available at the website below;

https://eservices.scottsdaleaz.gov/planning/projectsummary/dr_reports/DR_84_DR_2008.pdf

But guess what? Yep, you guessed it. Code Enforcement Department Manager Malcolm Hankins and Code Enforcement Inspectors are blocking his every move with the help of (or secret demands from) Councilman Wayne Ecton (Remember how Ecton bragged publicly about how he shut off the water to an entire town in Africa until they agreed to his and ALCOA’s terms and condition about the water supply?) Ecton just happens to live across the street from the proposed Charles Miller Square and apparently is putting citizen(s) up to complaining about the project that has been stalled by Code Enforcement on numerous but ridiculous issues for whatever reasons, and the Planning Department due to massive personnel, policy, and rule changes. Ecton is also the only councilman to vote against the council 6-1 approval of Charles Miller Square with some lame and childish excuses. We suspect that Ecton wanted something tall and ugly with his kind of entertainment included along with a kickback or something, who know what motivates Wayne Ecton to vote and make decisions the way he does?

To add insult to an already open and bleeding wound, in the gentleman’s own words:

In addition, the testimony in court, under oath from Raun Keagy didn’t jive with what had been stated by him on previous occasions that were caught and seen as lies according to Darlene Petersen who not only was in the court room but was allowed to testify successfully on Funke’s behalf.

And you wonder why the residents and small business owners not "in the fold" are fed up with the attitude and unprofessional workings of Code Enforcement?

We have watched this unselfish gentleman give of himself for the sake of this city and it’s historical basis while losing other prime downtown land to the city through eminent domain with promises of equal replacement, then get screwed over by the same ungrateful, greedy city government. Manross, Dolan, Robberson, Gray, Keagy, and Hankins have all done their part to stop this man from doing something wonderful for our city. Isn’t it about time this nonsense was stopped so this man can do something wonderful and meaningful for our city???

The Solis Project is yet another out of place, unwanted monstrosity dumped upon the citizens of Scottsdale by Manross, Dolan, and Frank Gray who did all the planning behind the publics back prior to their departures, all with City Attorney Robberson’s approval. As usual, there was zero consideration given to the residents of the area, the taxpayers of the city, or the true financial future of Scottsdale.

Unfortunately, the new city council had little choice on the Solis/SRP vote. The legal options open to developer Mark Madkour for filing suit against the city could be massive and devastating financially because of the Manross Administration and staffs heretofore unknown pre-approvals. Any suit by Madkour would make the ^$13 million dollar Hualapai fiasco look like a pittance in comparison. Add to that the absolute failure of City Attorney Deborah Robberson and the city legal department to properly protect the city and you have many financial catastrophes brewing. City CFO Craig Clifford has warned of these financial pitfalls and problems for years.

Mark Madkour was in a win-win situation no matter how the council voted. However, for Mark Madkour to throw a party outside city hall the night of the vote with chili and cornbread was in very poor taste and a huge slap in the face to the residents of the areas affected and the citizenry as a whole. Madkour’s efforts inferred "you already lost, have dinner on me" in other words "Let’em eat cake".

Klapp and Borowsky need to start looking at who is paying the majority of the taxes in this city and it is not the Mark Madkours of the world. Lane needs to live up to his campaign promises, while Ecton and McCullagh are nothing more than developer toadies.

We have Manross Administration approved or generated projects all over the city which are dismal failures or in foreclosure. This is all due to the city staffs failure to understand the basic financial needs and requirements of a city that used to be a World Class City.

We have bars and lounges in the downtown area that are now considered old hat to many and are no longer the huge draw that they were just 3 or 4 short years ago and are continuing to decline. The remaining patronization is increasingly becoming the more undesirable and unsavory types who participate in vulgar rap music, prostitution, organized gang, and many illegal activities.

The young "hip" crowd is moving on to other, newer venues that will be safe and catch their short, faddish fancies and they will probably not be located in Scottsdale. Learning from Scottsdale’s early but uncontrolled entry into the entertainment venues, the Glendale, Gilbert, and Phoenix entertainment venues are catching fire due to innovation on the part of those city governments. Scottsdale venues have stagnated because of their type of businesses and will need to re-invent themselves to remain profitable.

These problems need to be recognized, then corrected immediately.

Can Lane, Klapp, and Borowsky wake up and correct the myriad of problems thrown unceremoniously into their laps by the prior administration and the Scottsdale Area Chamber? Or, are we going to continue to be choked by mediocrity, lack of vision, and poor planning on the part of our newly elected officials and city staff?

Here we go again. We’ve had far too many calls and emails calling the Citizens Budget Selection Process a joke and a "Manross" business as usual decision.

Why in Gods name would someone who railed against the Manross way of doing the publics business decide on such a process where there are no applications accepted for the positions. Where there is zero citizen input into the process, as well as zero vetting of the applicants, and then allowing nepotism and personal choices to be allowed instead of vetted choices that would be in the best interest of the citizens?

Lisa Borowsky appointed her father and major campaign donor Eric Borowsky; a nice payback. Suzanne Klapp appointed her long time friend and campaign manager Donna Reagan, another nice payback. Wayne Ecton appointed his wife. Holy Cow, let’s keep it in the family so his vote is on the committee anyway. Ron "Craven Weasel" McCullagh appointed David M Smith that we see as possibly just another payback, we’ll see as time plays out.

The only intelligent choices in our minds were by Mayor Lane with Lou Schmitt, Tony Nelssen with Robert Berlese, and Bob Littlefield with Michael Foster.

The Scottsdale Republic Editorial staff weighed in as follows to everyone’s surprise:

Sigh. Lane's way of making appointments should be shelved

Scottsdale City Councilman Tony Nelssen leaned back, rolled his eyes and sighed. We could feel his pain.

Council members had just announced their appointments to the newly created Citizens Budget Review Commission. One councilman picked his wife. A councilwoman chose her father. Another chose her campaign manager. That deserved a sigh of exasperation.

But this was predictable once Mayor Jim Lane convinced the council to adopt a new way to appoint volunteers. Instead of having the full council interview and vote on candidates, each council member was given the power to appoint one person to the budget commission. The mayor appointed the chairman.

Lane made a fine selection in Lou Schmitt, a former associate Maricopa County manager. Ron McCullagh made an excellent choice in David M. Smith, who served as chief financial officer for Amtrak and Tennessee Valley Authority.

But Wayne Ecton appointed his wife, Martha. Suzanne Klapp appointed her longtime friend and campaign manager Donna Reagan. Lisa Borowsky appointed her father, Eric Borowsky, who owns Snowbowl and the building housing his son's strip club.

Would these three have made it through an interview with the full council? We'll never know. But there would have been more scrutiny, more transparency and less sighing.

That's why Lane should shelve any idea of appointing more committees in this fashion.

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 ~ We Still Have Time……

…….to have our elected and appointed city government officials open their eyes and ears to the citizens for a change and do what the city planned to do many years ago before greed, personal goals, and personal legacy issues got in the way of reason, controlled costs, historical importance, and competent planning with serious public input and approval.

Advanced planning and the City of Scottsdale seem to have the consistency of "oil and water," never quite coming together.

Example:

First we had a Canal Bank Plan that included no residential, but did provide for the "green, open-space, pedestrian friendly, horse friendly, community gathering space" to provide much needed open space for people living in the more densely populated Downtown and Southern Scottsdale neighborhoods. It would address the projected needs of multifamily housing residents needing room for recreation and the development proposed for the fringes of the Canal Bank open space. Restaurants, entertainment venues and small hotels would bring stimulation to the neighborhoods in Downtown.

That got blown out of the water, no pun intended; by the Waterfront development that kicked open the door for project by project development on the Canal Bank as we see it today.

The former Mayor, who was a former planning commissioner, promoted this plan and the deviation from the Canal Bank Plan and the former City Manager, and the Planning Commission went along for the destructive ride.

Example:

The Downtown Plan; First, we neglected to do anything after we created the "original Downtown Plan" in 1984. For 20 years we allowed it to sit there and collect dust, hidden from the public. Then it was determined the time had come to "revitalize" the Downtown because we:

Needed to look at economic revitalization for the area south of Indian Bend Road,

We were almost out of open, developable space on which to build, residential or commercial.

After 20 years the original Downtown Plan was sorely in need of updating, but it really took quite an uproar from residents and longtime small business owners in the Downtown to get leadership to even begin to entertain that prospect.

In 2005 the process was begun with a series of Town Hall meetings.

At that time Scottsdale’s Advanced Planning Department no longer existed. What and who was there in the late 1980’s, working on generating a reasonable, affordable, comprehensive but workable Canal Bank Plan, and the neighborhood and character area planning were kicked to the curb by the year 2000. Along with them went the historical knowledge of Scottsdale’s planning process and respect for the residents of Scottsdale, where they live, where they work, where they play, and where they spend their tax dollars.

What did we get in exchange?

Newly, re-introduced to the community this week is the re-stated Downtown Plan Update, sent back to be abbreviated because the first one was too long and involved.

Apparently, the leadership in Scottsdale was not into doing their homework like the Drinkwater administration was. Since we have so many people who come to live in Scottsdale who do not know the history of the community, but want to give back to their "new home town" having a historical chapter attached to planning information couldn’t hurt. It helps with perspective, comprehension of the area and respects the past so that a quality long lasting future can be perpetuated.

Under the leadership of since fired Advanced Planner John Lusardi, staff developed a comprehensive and basically acceptable draft update; Lengthy, but comprehensive.

Under direction from the Planning Commission and City Council after Lusardi’s exit, the original draft was shortened, greatly. Staff was called upon to almost make Solomon’s Choice.

The new draft was presented for the first time to the Planning Commission on Wednesday, February 25. While there was some discussion there needs to be a lot more.

Some of those sitting in the Kiva listening to the discussion appreciated the abbreviated draft document. Some felt that both documents should be essential tools of the Planning Department and Planning Commission.

Still, many said the first document told the Planning Department, Planning Commission and City Council and potential developers and citizens what could/should be done. They said the Abbreviated Draft Document, once again, allowed the developers to tell the community what they would do and promoted project by project development with no vision and expectations which is exactly what put this city in the predicament we’re in now.

It is still early in the approval process for this Abbreviated Draft Document. All of those involved in the Downtown Planning Update process, from Town Hall to focus groups to reincarnations of the final plan; everybody needs to stay ACTIVE and be heard so that our once highly respected and often copied city can return to being one of the envied "top dogs" in the valley, state and in the nation.

How can you get involved?

Email Nancy Cantor at nancyanncantor@cox.net . All help and involvement no matter how much or how little will improve what we now have to work with.

Welcome aboard!!!

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The Transportation Department under Mary O’Connor has totally lost sight of the objectives of a good citizen driven and guided government entity.

It appears that we have blind and deaf Prima Dona’s at the helm of a department that has no clue or interest concerning the need for public input and frankly couldn’t care less. All you have to do is look around at the deteriorating streets, curbs, gutters, and sidewalks as we helplessly sit by and watch O’Connor and Porell spend millions on building unwanted and unneeded neighborhood entry islands that are run over and through on a regular and costly basis.

Streets without schools or many curves get centerlines to slow down and guide traffic while streets with schools and curves that have had such lines and bike lanes for decades now need a survey and numerous discussions over a two (2) year period before the additions can even be considered.

The laws say you cannot have a traffic or pedestrian controlled structure less than 600 feet from another control device or object. Yet O’Connor and Porell installed a pedestrian/bicycle crossing in the form of a speed table in the middle of the Indian Bend Wash just a couple hundred feet from a major North/South artery (Hayden) without any public input. They also didn’t ask for or get any direction from any outside but involved organization such as the Army Corp of Engineers, US Department of Reclamation, or the Maricopa County Flood Control authority.

In the interest of fuel economy, better flowing traffic and reduced costs, all of the nonsense brought to Scottsdale by Mary O’Connor and Paul Porell needs to be stopped in its tracts. Let’s get back to basics by merging city Street and Traffic Operations with the Transportation Department so there is a flow of information and dollars where they will do the best job instead of feeding someone’s ego by allowing the building of unneeded street furniture, speed tables, and other nonsensical traffic blocking structures while our streets, curbs, gutters and sidewalks are falling apart at an alarming rate.

Did you know that we only have one crew of two (2) employees who repair sidewalks, gutters, and curbs?? That woke you up didn’t it!!

This city needs to seriously re-evaluate the entire organization called city government and throw out everything brought in by Dolan or her appointees and get back to basics where everything related is under one roof so to speak. That will eliminate a number of management positions and streamline the entire government while saving taxpayers dollars.

Traffic, streets, and roadside tree/plants etc under Transportation. Building, sign and other construction inspections under Code Enforcement, and so it goes.

What’s so hard about that??

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Of late, we have seen a number of new letter writers in the Scottsdale Republic expressing exasperation and anger at people such as Mark Ortega and Beverly Lloyd-Lee who couldn’t find their way to 87^th and Vernon if their lives depended on it. To say, and even worse, believe that Activists are the cause of the failure of growth in Scottsdale are childish and immature with no sense of history. They are showing themselves to be someone who is stuck on themselves and their opinions without thought of others or their opinions without discussion or historical background. If the Activists hadn’t been involved in the process, this city would have far more business and new project failures than we currently have because there would have been nothing or nobody to bring everyone back to reality and to readdress history. The United States of America is in trouble because no one in government paid any attention to history, the greatest teacher available to us.

The United States of America was founded by Activists who fled England to be rid of forced religion and double or triple taxation, and to make a new and vibrant country free of oppression and a depressing and crushing caste system.

This country was founded as a Representative Republic using Democracy and the 1599 version of the Bible as a basis for the government system that consisted of three (3) distinctly separate branches called the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary Branches; none to control or dominate the other by themselves. We ARE NOT a Democracy as many think because those poor souls who believe that were taught by teachers who can’t find their backsides in the dark. Those teachers all live in a closed egotistical vacuum thinking they have the answers because they went to college. Ah, but what kind of living experience have they had in really understanding what they were taught? Those who spent time in the Military, the Peace Corp, or serving their God in a foreign country for 2 years have a much better handle on history, it’s lessons, it’s reality, and the needs of a country or city than those who have lived a life absorbed with themselves and their every want and singular opinions.

Activism has always been the driving force behind scores of new and innovative processes as well as advancements in many areas of science, medicine, as well as cities, countries and their successful growth.

Those who participated in the Boston Tea Party were Activists because they acted against the tax collector of the Crown. George Washington was a huge activist being that he "acted" against the oppressive and demanding King of England. The signers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were all acts of unabashed activism because they changed the status quo for the better for all who were in the United States or would come here over the next hundreds of years. Patrick Henry and Paul Revere were activists. Abraham Lincoln was a very aggressive activist because he freed the slaves and gave life and meaning to many with his actions and his revelations under almost impossible odds.

Activism is a great and courageous thing that needs to continue if the United States of America is to survive our current problems; the same goes for the city of Scottsdale.

History is always repeated when people don’t actively get involved in the process using history as their main guide to success. You’ve heard the phrase History will repeat itself if we don’t pay attention and guard against it.

History is our best educator and is built upon activism and dedication to the process of evolution under the rules based upon solid historical facts and actions.

We at the Scottsdale Activist would like to congratulate Dawn Brokaw and many other citizen activists who are speaking out about our city processes and against those who want to settle for mediocrity without using history as the basis and guide for successful and sustainable growth.

Unfortunately, the Mark Ortega’s, Beverly Lloyd-Lee’s, Robert Leger’s, and Dave Bachmann’s of the world will learn the hard way that you cannot spite history by avoiding or burying it.

History must be accepted as fact and used as the basis for all that’s to be new and better.

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 ~COGS CORNER….1 March 09

FUNKY-FLAKEY FEBRUARY is finally finished! Even though it is our shortest month, the City of Scottsdale crammed enough "drama" into those 28 days to keep The Coalition of Greater Scottsdale members and E-Newsletter guests receiving almost daily Alerts. Internet links were delivered like bird droppings (pun intended) into home web mail boxes. Here are only some examples:

https://eservices.scottsdaleaz.gov/eServices/cases/casesheet.aspx?caseid=36133

and the appeal forms are at

 http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Assets/documents/bldgresources/RightToAppeal.pdf

The Downtown Plan Update returned to the Planning Commission in late February fully revised in format, focus, and inclusiveness.  At the hearing, COGS Chairperson, Sonnie Kirtley, presented a four page Position Statement on the revised DPU document.  The staff was asked to clarify some statements and terms, and encouraged to evaluate COGS commentary and recommendations on more than 36 proposed policies. COGS prefers much stronger city text to encourage builders to provide affordable housing by placing it on the list of incentives that could result in awarding flexibility to a project. She praised the staff for their diligence in making some changes strongly requested by the advocacy groups and citizens.

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