The February 24th Edition will be up sometime mid to late Saturday due to a breaking Hot Story and some bad colds that have kept us under the weather so to speak all week. Sorry for any inconvenience, but you'll be happy and surprised or possibly shocked as we exclusively break the exciting full news story "Winds of Change" to you in it's entirety!!!
Volume '07-07
Updated Saturday 5PM Feb
17, 2007
The Scottsdale Activist
will not publish unsubstantiated allegations, libelous
statements, profanity, or personal attacks without a verifiable basis.
All letters, columns, pictures, or political cartoons submitted must
include the authors or artists name, address, daytime phone number, and
email. All personal information except the author, photographer, or
artists name will remain strictly confidential without being released,
sold or distributed in any manner. We assume no responsibility for the
contents of letters, columns, or cartoons and reserve the right to—at
our discretion—edit or refuse to print any submissions or parts thereto without the need
for justification. Opinions expressed herein are solely those of the named authors/artists and not necessarily the opinions of
The Scottsdale Activist
.
To send our
Brave Troops "Something from Home",
Click
on Any of the
Links below.
==================================================
This a
"No Cost"
website
dedicated to the Citizens of
Scottsdale who care enough about their city
to get involved.
Just Click the Sign up Button iiii
This is your personal palette from which you may "Paint the Tone" of the Scottsdale picture as YOU see it!
==========================================
Just click on the logos below to go to these websites.
==================================
Point to an Article you wish to read, then Just Click
~ Weekly Editorial -- Staff
Coming Soon: THM's & Hualapai Updates
~ The City Budget, a Primer
~ Food for Thought - Take It or Leave It
~ Shout and Spout, Very Revealing !!!
~ Thought for the Week -- Thomas Jefferson
~ Quote of the Week -- Thomas Jefferson
~ Information You Can Use
Other Stuff of Interest
~ Look up Prior Editions? Click a on date to open.
How does one really measure performance and accountability at the Scottsdale City management staff level? Well, for one, you don’t do it by any particular review format. Why? Because there isn’t a review format or formal review process for those employees. As with most issues pertinent to the City’s performance or lack thereof, it’s who you know and what you did for them that makes all the difference in your end of year review and pay raise.
Take the recent issues surrounding Jan Dolan’s review: If we had to look back on Ms. Dolan’s Year in Review, we’d have to say that the grandiose pat on the back and big fat raise that she received from the council majority must have been someone’s idea of a sick joke. Not only did Ms. Dolan nearly lose the return of the Barrett-Jackson event last year (and now its costing us a pretty penny to renegotiate that deal), she also erroneously spearheaded the 15 million dollar contract screw up for the Hualapai Water Treatment plant land which will result in future litigation plus a potpourri of other covert and generally unknown issues which have cost the taxpayers millions of dollars with the mayor's full approval. At her direction, more "street furniture" and traffic calming has been implemented on one of Scottsdale’s busiest arterial thoroughfares, Cactus Road, now halting traffic flow. 96th Street has seen the addition of an oversized, dangerous roundabout, which has drawn more than just the attention of the papers. Worse yet, Dolan is not only controlling our money, she’s spending it like a drunken sailor in her Manross approved double-duty role as City Manager and City Treasurer. Is it true that she maintains a $50 million dollars slush fund for her "special" purposes?
When the Tribune recently announced that they were suing the City of Scottsdale because the City Manager’s performance review documents were not made available as part of a public records request, we applauded them with a standing ovation. The City’s noncompliance with the document request should have all of us asking, "What is the City of Scottsdale hiding?" And if it’s nothing, then why can’t we see or worst case scenario, be told, upon what criteria Ms. Dolan was reviewed and subsequently granted a heft pay increase? If there is no plausible methodology by which to measure her performance, then all we have is what we’ve seen. The performance that we’ve seen during this past year appears to have fallen woefully short of constituting a pay raise of any kind and most probably should have resulted in Dolan's firing instead.
So what of accountability? How does Ms. Dolan know when she’s doing a good job or for that matter, a bad one, in her multiple positions? Does she have a set of guidelines for performance? Apparently not. We guess she just measures it in how fat her back pocket becomes when it is lined with favors, cash and the success of moguls like developers, favored attorneys, and political advocates who frequently call her "friend".
We think the City’s new motto should be, "We don’t need no stinkin’ performance reviews"…tell that to the hundreds of disgruntled and "Stress-sick" people who are employed by the City of Scottsdale under tyrant Dolan and her HR "hatchet woman" Teri Traaen.
Once again, Jan Dolan sets precedent and it certainly isn’t befitting the World Class City we are supposed to be. Let’s make every word of that performance review public. Now!!
~ Increased Freeway Safety Claim a Farce
Claims of increased safety on the loop 101 in Scottsdale under the Photo Radar program and Dr. Washington’s report seem to conflict greatly; so much in fact that he warns the numbers could change since the data for "peak hours" was not even noted in this report, nor did he have the information he needed yet, and some he will never have at all.
Instead, we get a 100% increase in rear-end accidents that we are now going to swap for decreases in "other" accidents and the new number is now 54%.
Hello Houston? We have a problem here!
The report did not show a significant reduction in those "other" accidents.
The report also did not include the accidents that occur during "peak hours"; you know, the times we are going to and coming back from work or heading to an appointment; the time when accidents, especially rear-end accidents, are most notable.
With no realistic decline in the numbers of "other" crashes I am sure that the report had to be using a baseline of some sort to account for the "increase" in rear-end accidents, and those would come from DPS or ADOT showing how many rear-end accidents the stretch of the freeway has had.
Not only would this mean there has been "no" reduction of rear end accidents since the cameras were installed, but that the increase is a direct result of placing the system on the freeway.
The Maricopa Association of Governments had shown that before the city installed the system, that section of the freeway had seen a significant decrease in the number of accidents.
Dr. Washington’s own report concluded that this section of the freeway was one of the safest and actually performs better than expected prior to the cameras being installed.
Dr. Washington’s report on crash swapping seems to not take into account that rear-end crashes are very dangerous, costly, and have now increased by more than 100% making no sense in his claims of reduced insurance costs. With no decrease of any "significant" value in the "other" accidents and an increase in rear-end accidents by possibly one and a half times since you have to include the numbers they used to project the increase, how did you really save anything?
Lets use some of Dr. Washington’s comments as noted from his report.
"Note that the conclusions are based on
incomplete data"
"based on the analysis of a variety of limited
data sets"
"Detailed analysis of specific crashes has not
been conducted as part of this analysis"
"the entire cost and benefits have not been
included in this analysis"
"all crashes "appear" to have been reduced"
Dr. Washington’s reasoning for using "crash swapping" is noted as such; "swapping of crash types are common for safety countermeasures --- many countermeasures exhibit the crash swapping phenomenon observed in this study (left turn channelization, red light cameras, conversion of stop signs to signals)."
All attributes noted for side streets and not on a freeway leading to the conclusions that the report is flawed in many ways.
Rear–end accidents are noted to be accidents that kill and maim people on a regular basis and a point to consider is none other than our own Mayor.
Mayor Manross of Scottsdale recently rear-ended a vehicle when she claims she was startled by a dust cloud out of her window (or was she on her cell phone?) and totaled the car in front of her sending this person to the hospital and to date is still going through therapy.
First of all our Mayor needs to stay off of her phone when she is driving as I find a sudden dust cloud on Hayden and Camelback road, which has greenbelts on both sides and paved roads very hard to believe.
But the Mayor has been said to only have been going 35 and we will not note the speed on that road is 45 and she was probably looking at the guy passing her with his finger in the air at her for slowing down traffic, but instead, we should look at the damage done to the other vehicle and the person, and conclude that an increase in accidents at double the speed she was claimed to have been going is something we should not be promoting to do on our freeways.
As we part ways on this issue of accidents it should be noted that the reference material used by Dr. Washington for this report did not include one of the studies by other governmental agencies who have studied the crash data, as well as numerous Universities who have studied crash data related to the camera systems, just those who have cast positive spins on the systems and many of which are way outdated.
If you are going to drive the freeways of Arizona after the camera systems are installed, based on greed of money and government officials not wanting to look at the truth, than please cover "both" of your rear ends.
The one that holds your wallet, and the one the guy behind you will probably slam into when some fool in front of you slams on his brakes to avoid being photographed.
We were surprised and saddened to read the "Scottsdale Voice" column Friday in the Scottsdale Tribune by Lisa Haskell. We aren't sure whether the piece was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, or a serious but poor attempt at attack journalism.
The activists in the entire city of Scottsdale have been at the forefront of progress, controlled growth, and change in Scottsdale for over 50 years. Once the Manross administration and the Dolan hatchet people came into power, employee morale and productivity have dropped and the loss ratio of employees has skyrocketed. Reportedly, the Human Resources department has lost about 30 employees since Dolan hired Teri Traaen as the new HR Manager, the Planning Department lost scores of employees prior to the hiring of Frank Gray, and Code Enforcement is in the middle of serious employee morale problems reportedly due to extremely poor management starting with Dolan and Register.
Nancy Cantor, Mike Merrill, Bob Vairo, COPP, along with many Activists in the south didn't see eye to eye on a number of issues over the years continually fomented by the Manross administrations divide and conquer strategies but COPP and those groups in the south found that they did have a strong common interest in preserving the semi rural, non-urban density, low height, and high class but neighbor-friendly atmosphere of the city as envisioned by Mayor Herb Drinkwater and other residents. They also saw that they would have to fight city hall together to keep Scottsdale the city it used to be and could be again. With that understanding being the basis, the new organization Coalition Of Greater Scottsdale was formed with everyone leaving their egos at the door. I know of two other groups that were going to use that name but never went forward with it. Lisa Haskell was apparently one of the people who either did or was going to try to use it but never followed through.
Just as a point of information, COGS has had many offers for places to meet and those locations are all over the city so the comment that they don't have a place to meet is all poppycock generated by a person who doesn't really know what she's talking about.
To read Ms. Haskell, it would seem that the activists were the scourge of the earth when, in fact, they have been the only one's holding the Manross administrations feet to the fire. The activists also discovered that Manross/Dolan and loyal few on their staffs had been furiously feeding the divisiveness between the north and south to keep the entire citizenry fighting amongst themselves while the administration and Dolan quietly and stealthily went about their covert activities of building their legacies at the expense of the taxpayers.
I would hope that the Haskell piece was tongue-in-cheek. If it wasn't, I think Ms. Haskell needs to take a step back and re-evaluate her conclusions in her piece because they are terribly off base and out of touch with reality. To attack both friend and foe in the same article would seem to me to be extremely bad for one's credibility.
Maybe Ms. Haskell needs to tuck her ego away too. There is no need to attack those trying to keep Scottsdale the Scottsdale we all know and love.
~ Off Track Betting a Bad Thing
We had a public vote a few years back where the citizens of the state and the city of Scottsdale voted to disallow gambling in Scottsdale except for Bingo at churches, right or wrong.
Now comes Bar owner Tom Anderson who wants Off-Track betting in the downtown Scottsdale area. This is a bad and unnecessary business which doesn't need to be initiated in Scottsdale which would open the door to scores more who will request the same ability to have the off-Track betting. We feel this is a notion that the council should solidly reject at it's first opportunity.
~ Coming Soon: THM's & Hualapai Updates
Within the next two weeks, the Scottsdale Activist will try to work through the stack of paperwork to decipher what Assistant City Manager Roger Klingler, at Jan Dolan's request, compiled for us concerning the current situation at Hualapai and the THM levels at the new Hayden & McDonald water plants.
At first blush, it would appear that we were bombarded with volumes of material to keep us from finding the needle in the haystack which is all we were looking for in the beginning. In addition, it would seem that they are trying desperately to cover up the massive screw-up by Dolan so as to save her job.
We will be watching closely to see how Dolan wheels and deals to dig her way out of this multi-million dollar boondoggle legally. If we find she is trading land which we bought for other purposes, we will expose every detail. If we find that out after the fact, legal action will be vigorously pursued.
Many citizens don't seem to understand the illegality of the cameras on the freeway as outlined by the Arizona Courts. They also don't seem to understand that the city has zero authority under state law to do what they are doing. Only because Manross want's to make a name for herself and Dolan can feel the power do they continue on this course.
I pray that the State Legislature pays no attention to the lobbyists from the city of Scottsdale and put's Photo Radar to a vote of the people state-wide or totally outlaws it.
In addition, it is paramount that the Legislature provide the needed and sustainable dollars to double the number of sworn DPS personnel currently employed for the sole purpose of keeping our state highways and byways safe through the means provided by State law.
NEWS FLASH: It would appear that the subject of Photo Radar on State Highways is going to put to the voters sometime next year. Unfortunately, Dolan's Slush Fund will grow by millions with apparently nothing going to Public Safety between now and next year.
~ The City Budget, a Primer
~ Introduction to the Scottsdale Budget Process, Part 1
It is that time of year again when the Scottsdale City Council starts discussing what to do about the city budget for next year. Because our city budget is so large and complex few citizens have the time or resources to really understand how we are spending your tax dollars down at City Hall. This makes it difficult for citizens to decide for themselves whether or not we on the City Council are handling your tax dollars wisely.
This is a problem because next year Scottsdale will spend over a billion dollars of taxpayer money. As the budget process unfolds over the next few months I will be writing regular updates here in the Scottsdale Activist to help readers stay informed on where your tax dollars are going. Hopefully this will help you to provide the Council with your feedback on how next year’s budget should look.
To begin with, there are a few important points that you should know:
You may have heard it claimed that Scottsdale practices "zero-base budgeting," which is a concept wherein every program, project and department has to justify its existence every budget year. This is a great concept and if truly practiced would save money because every year some budget items would not make the cut and would lose their funding. But that is not what happens in Scottsdale as evidenced by the fact that the city almost never allows a program, project or department to disappear from Scottsdale’s budget.
Another thing you should know is that for the last six years the Scottsdale spending has grown faster than both inflation and population growth. When I pointed this fact out in one of last year’s budget hearings the response I got was that the citizen’s of Scottsdale want lot’s of stuff. OK, fine, but the public should be aware of these trends so that they can consider their implications.
For the last several years we have postponed many projects that were approved by the voters in Bond 2000 because there was not enough money to build or operate them. This is often blamed on revenue declines following 9/11. But a big reason for the unavailability of funds for these projects are some of the other places that you tax dollars went.
For example, this fiscal year we will spend over $8 million of general fund money on debt service and infrastructure at SkySong – money that was not available for police, fire, parks, etc.
Citizens should know this fact when they consider whether they are getting their money’s worth from the record-breaking subsidy Scottsdale provided to this project.
In next week’s Scottsdale Activist I will talk about how the city could better inform the public about the important details of the budget and how we could harness the efforts of concerned citizens to help make the budgeting process more open and effective.
Councilman Bob Littlefield
|
~Letters to the Editor ~ letters@scottsdaleactivist.com Fenger Pointing as seen in the Sonoran News By Becky Fenger "First do no harm." This was the quote that transit consultant Tom Rubin used to begin his discussion of transit choices facing the City of Scottsdale as officials prepare to update their Transportation Master Plan for the coming decades. Attributed to Hippocrates and used by medical school professors as a warning to students about to lay hands on their patients, the cautionary phrase should be taken to heart when considering options for Scottsdale Road, the designated High Capacity Corridor. The Scottsdale Citizens Transportation Study Committee invited the knowledgeable Rubin to town to lead an informational forum last Saturday at the Chaparral Suites Resort. You gotta love Councilman Bob Littlefield who stood up after more than an hour of solid figures from Rubin’s slides and confided, "The Council members who want rail don’t give a rat’s rear end for your figures. It’s a political issue and has nothing to do with transportation." Amen to that. After a concentrated examination of Scottsdale Road, Rubin told the Study Committee members that it would be nuts to put rail on the signature street. "It would ruin it. You would not recognize what you have now," he said. "Unless City planners want to take all rubber-tired traffic off the downtown section of that Road and make it a pedestrian area, neither rail nor modern streetcar is workable." The Fire Dept. will need a full-time safety lieutenant, what with the 600-900 Volts of electricity coursing through bare copper wire cable as they are pouring water on a fire. "If they haven’t planned for that person, ask why not," he warned. Modern streetcar is slow, small capacity with infrequent service and not suited as a main transit mode. "It is not uncommon in cities for pedestrians to overtake the streetcars," he noted. Van pools, smart jitneys available by computer, and other forms of downsized, door-to-door vehicles are much better options for a city that is not high density at all in terms of folks going to centralized places. As to Chamber of Commerce Rick Kidder’s threat that Scottsdale hospitals would have to close if the City didn’t provide transit for its employees, Rubin says there is no reason why the hospitals themselves couldn’t come up with their own customized van pool networks. The Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors hosted a debate on Friday at the Doubletree Scottsdale-Paradise Valley Resort. Nearly 300 people attended (not the 100 reported by Casey Newton in the Scottsdale Republic) and more wanted to join but were unable to find any parking at the Doubletree, a constant niggling problem there. Rubin likens the staunch supporters of light rail transit or modern streetcar to those misguided souls who follow the failed syllogism: A) If we do nothing, congestion
will get worse, I would add that if Lady Scottsdale falls for this, she is going to get, well, you know. One of the most interesting comments that Rubin made at a meeting scheduled for Mayor Mary Manross, City Manager Jan Dolan, City Council, and transportation officials and staff was the observation that a citizen can almost unfailingly tell what form of transit he will end up with by taking note of what consulting firm the City picks to perform the study and what parameters the consultant is told to look at in the study. There you have it. HDR builds rail, Charlie
Hales is in love with modern streetcar, and the study is limited
to LRT, modern streetcar and Bus Rapid Transit (probably on a
dedicated lane). Why should you folks further up North care what is happening south of you? Planners some day would like to bring the business-destroying, traffic-clogging rail with its tangle of ugly wires up to you. As the Boy Scouts would say: "Be Prepared." Becky Fenger can be reached at beckyfenger@cox.net. Well, here we go again with Lisa Haskell and her most recent spasm of the brain, and not to long ago we all got to read her comments to Merlin Gindlesperger and how she attacked him with threats of legal action from her "HOA". I feel sorry for anyone who has to live in that HOA I can tell you that. In this letter, Ms. Haskell, who is always sneaking around in the background of something, like the night of the citizens petition for voting on Rail Transit when multiple people commented about her skulking around on the other side of the Mall bridge, but in this tantrum she attacks me for things I have nothing to do with or some wild imagination. I guess taking some pictures of the Slum Conditions over by the new Safari is supposed to be acting in some inappropriate way and apparently shows my bad side? Now I guess I am the one who came up with the name for the Coalition of Greater Scottsdale which by the way was something that all the people attending had decided on and was not brought forward by me. Also I guess this was some name that Lisa was thinking about using or something, but who knows. It is always fun to read the rants of a mindless wit, who has no clue what she is talking about, and never checks her facts before she bounces out of her padded condo with some rather strange observations. Nope, I never threatened a referendum on the Water View project and I have not even met with the developer to look at what is being proposed, and all I did with the transportation issue was what many residents wanted, the right to vote on it before the council approves it, but now I am the one holding up the city and how traffic flows. I guess this must all be true because at the end of her ranting, she claims to have spoken with God about this; and he gave her the thumbs up? Since we have been hearing for years now how bad things are in Scottsdale by her, notably the South, most of us can only hope that one day she follows through with her continual threat of moving out of Scottsdale. Michael Merrill
~The Home Alarm System You Didn’t Know You Had
This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator............. Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this: It's a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation. Test it. It will go off from most everywhere And remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm can work the same way there..... This is something that should really be shared with everyone. Maybe it could save a Life; Yours!!! |
I do not see why we have to keep catering to Craig Jackson. He needs Scottsdale as much or more than we need him. Ms. Dolan and staff have to stand firm on these negotiations and not let this manipulator/opportunist continue to threaten the city and thereby get away with adding an additional tax burden to the taxpayers.
He benefits by having his car auction in our World Class City as Scottsdale has the image to attract the customer he is seeking...... Affluence, Scenery, Hotels, Weather, and Restaurants.
Where else is he going to find a more perfect combination to attract his customer profile?
For just once in recent memory, our Scottsdale city administration has to stand firm and not let these "carpet baggers" continue to tell the city what and how to do things.
Paul Reich
Scottsdale
~ Steve Steinberg Needs to Go, NOW!
Steve Steinberg of the Planning Commission is so out of touch with the reality of what the citizens of Scottsdale want that he needs to step down so someone who does understand the citizens wants and needs can take his place.
Mr. Steinberg: you DO NOT serve the mayor, the city manager, the developers, the Chamber of Commerce, or the ones who think they own the city. You volunteered to serve and promulgate the best plans that represent the needs and desires of the citizens of our fair city. You are definitely not doing that and you are angering the populous. COGS was formed partially due to your inattentiveness to the TRUE public need.
I really don't understand why you continue to serve when your decisions are clearly out of step with reality. Your personal opinions sir, do not count and should never come into play on the Planning Commission. What counts is your understanding of the citizen wants and needs which you should then find the best way to make them work.
Attacking the Activists of the city was a cheap shot because the majority of them, and there are hundreds, have lived and participated in Scottsdale's continued and controlled growth for far longer than you have lived here. You might want to sit down with some of them as I did to find out what Scottsdale really needs, which IS NOT high urban density, light rail, or 120 foot buildings with gaudy faces.
Step down sir before someone requests that you be thrown off the commission.
E. Slocomb
Scottsdale
~ Flowers: Henry Becker's or the City's
It absolutely amazes me that this city has decided that those ridiculous 12 foot tall flowers and a funky fence slated for south Scottsdale are "appropriate" for the area when Henry Becker's, although also commissioned through an artist by Becker but much more artistic and suited for the Arizona desert, are considered an eyesore.
Frankly, I don't have a problem with Becker's Kokopeli's, I just don't think the signage he has is necessary and it does detract from the area. His "art work" is well out of the way and is not hard on the eyes where that "whimsical" junk they are proposing for south Scottsdale is atrocious and will slam you in the face the minute you get near it!
If you tried to put that "Whimsical Art" in north Scottsdale, you would incite a major riot in city hall. so, as they say in my native New York, forget about it!!
A transplanted New Yorker now living in North Scottsdale
"I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants...I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys."
-- Thomas Jefferson
~ Food
for Thought, Take it or Leave it
Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace
:1. BLAMESTORMING - Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
2. SEAGULL MANAGER - A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything; and then leaves.
3. ASSMOSIS - The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.
4. SALMON DAY - The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
5. CUBE FARM - An office filled with cubicles.
6. PRAIRIE DOGGING - When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.
7. MOUSE POTATO - The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
8. SITCOMS - Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.
9. STRESS PUPPY - A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
10. SWIPEOUT - An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.
11. XEROX SUBSIDY - Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.
12. IRRITAINMENT - Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.
13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE - The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
14. ADMINISPHERE - The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
15. 404 - Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested site could not be located.
16. GENERICA - Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.
17. OHNOSECOND - That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake).
18. WOOFS - Well-Off Older Folks.
shoutandspout@scottsdaleactivist.com
~Did you see the Lisa Haskell ‘Scottsdale Voice" article in the Trib on Friday? It's nice to know that the Trib has a sense of humor, printing non-sequiturs from a clearly misinformed and misguided individual like this! Her significant distain with Scottsdale tells me that she really needs to get the (heck) out of this town and live somewhere else. Lisa, what have you done for us lately to make positive changes or additions to our city? (knock knock) Helloooooooo???????? Just as I suspected. No one is home!
~ I read the Opinions Page of the Scottsdale Republic this morning and was very impressed with the intelligence and open way Mr. Derouin presented himself and his thoughts in the article on the Light Rail Debate. I would love to see someone of his caliber, knowledge, and credibility run for mayor. Do you think he'll ever consider such a move?
~I believe that all transportation plans should require approval by the citizens and businesses directly affected by their implementation. Let’s not endanger our cultural heritage and Scottsdale character in order to resolve our transportation issues. Mr. Gerber, I agree with you. Light rail on the 101 Freeway? I think it’s a great idea – push public transportation out to an area where it does not directly affect the inner city workings, culture and businesses. Make it accessible to the people, especially intra-city commuters. Do not increase density and height and use that as an excuse for light rail on Scottsdale Road. Dolan, Manross, what do you think? Sadly, I think we already have their answer.
~ The new dog park is absolutely beautiful. Too bad we have to stare at the great rust bowl in the background. Maybe they can camouflage the water treatment plant with some really tall, dense trees? Oh wait, they tried that tree camouflage plan with the PV Arsenic Removal Facility tanks on Cattle Track by the canal and it didn’t work!!!
~Do you ever wonder why you never hear the words "light rail system" and "101 Freeway" in the same breath? It’s because that’s not want Manross and Dolan want for their precious Scottsdale. It’s not in THEIR plan. Plain and simply put…it isn’t what WE, the citizens of Scottsdale want for our beautiful city, it’s what THEY, the staff and misguided leaders of our city want for their own personal agendas. They seek high urban density, height, and destruction of our Scottsdale character for profit. They line their pockets (and likely future campaign bank accounts) with favors from developers, and corporations who will support their decisions. Forget that none of this is right, moralistic or even beneficial for our city. It works for them. Discussions with consultants, focus groups, feedback cards at meetings…it’s all bunk. It’s meant to show you, the citizens, that our city leaders really care. See it for what it is… a disgraceful sham. The current plan is limited in scope to a major transportation corridor up and down Scottsdale Road with only three options for service: light rail, modern streetcar (which also requires a rail system) or mass bus transit (needs special track). Does it surprise anyone that neither the citizens nor the businesses agreed to that plan?
~ What happened to the Dial-a-Ride program for seniors? I walk to the grocery store and back to my home but it will get warm soon and I will need some help with that. I see the trolleys now and then but they don’t go directly to my neighborhood.
~ Does anyone know what is going to happen to the Pavillions shopping mall off of Pima Rd.? There are numerous shops and restaurant spaces available and it seems like many stores are having more frequent sales – like going out of business sales! This is a very central mall to much of the mid and southern Scottsdale citizens. I’d hate to see it go under or worse, go industrial.
~ What's with Lisa Haskell? Has she flipped her lid?
~Who really loses in this Dolan/Manross goal of high density and light rail? We, as citizens, do. I urge you to step up to the plate. Write letters, attend meetings, and above all else, move to elect new leaders who will develop Scottsdale in a fair and conservative manner, based upon a consensual plan initiated by the citizens. Your voice does count, so make it heard.
~ Exactly how much open space we are suppose to have in Scottsdale per acre or has that, too, gone on to some vote by the Council to eliminate it, revise it or otherwise, leave it up to Dolan???
~I had to smile when I read Mr. Jerry Gerber’s letter to the editor in the Scottsdale Republic on Thursday 2/15. He commented that someone should consider putting the much talked about light rail system on the 101 Freeway. Duh! How many of us spent our precious hours attending those worthless "consultation" sessions with transportation planners and staff who are spearheading the Transportation Project for Scottsdale and came up with that same conclusion? I for one attended many sessions, spent countless hours reviewing documentation on transportation systems, spoke with transportation experts in other cities, and then submitted a well thought out five page overview, to the consultants, outlining our major transportation issues. I even offered suggestions for their consideration to improve transportation with part of that submission including placement of the light rail system, which would tie into the Tempe and Phoenix systems, on the 101 Freeway. It has been more than a year since I participated in this study. As with Mr. Gerber’s letter, my suggestions have fallen on deaf ears.
~ If I were Attorney John Berry and Susan Bitter-Smith, I’d be very afraid of the recent upheaval over that proposed build out adjacent to the Monterey Villas area. The talk of a referendum is a telltale sign that the people are on top of things and the developers will have an uphill battle on this project. Good going Scottsdale citizens! Keep up the great work! Keep these profiteer developers out of our neighborhood!
~ Is code enforcement on vacation again? I have lodged three complaints in my neighborhood about some guy who has parked his wide camper on the street in order to sell it – it’s been there since January 20th and no one has cited it. I have seen code enforcement trucks pass by it more than four times in the past two weeks – what gives?
~ The new dog park is great! Thanks.
~Why do we have to play a guessing game about how much money the Barrett-Jackson event really made for Scottsdale? Seems to me that we should be able to get a true sales tax revenue number from some public documentation. It sounds like Dolan is super inflating the profits to qualify bringing Jackson back and Jackson is using those hyper inflated numbers to get even more money from the city on his contract. Tell me again, who wins in this deal?
~Our current transportation issues are in the hands of Dolan, Manross and consultants who have transformed otherwise beautiful towns and cities into major high density metropolis’ with multi-story mini malls on every street corner and absolutely no character or open space. Buildings will be stacked one right on top of the other, utilized for commercial and residential use – it will be loft/condo-ville. We will no longer have a skyline view of Camelback or Mummy Mountain unless we own one of the upper 7th-15th story condos in the downtown area. This newly transformed city they offer will push out the middle class citizenry and quaint Fifth Ave. shops and cater to the upper class Jane’s and Joe’s and their ostentatious needs. Ultra high density will demand greater need for massive and expensive public transportation – here’s their light rail down Scottsdale Road. If you allow our leaders to transform this city into their dream image, you can kiss our diversified town goodbye! At the end of the day, it isn’t about what you think of them, it’s what the developers, large corporations and monetary powerhouses, want and need from them. The interest is purely political profit.
~Referencing "City Council Comment Cards Useless". Great observation! One did not know or realize the chicanery permitted. I believe that "questions addressed to the Mayor and Council are to be addressed or replied to or referred to someone involved for a reply at a later date", but are completely ignored by the Mayor, the majority of the council, the city manager, and never replied to. The only method now to have a question answered is to use the "petition method" format with supposedly the question asked to be replied to as a Regular Agenda Item. There is more than one way to expose a pack of low down conniving rats.
~ I’m starting to feel like I can’t go anywhere in Scottsdale without running into those stupid barricade signs for road construction. Yet, when the construction is completed, I don’t see any better flow of traffic. Who is charge of this transportation disaster? I can’t go anywhere on the city’s website to find a master transportation plan but road construction is happening everywhere! Who is calling the shots and where’s the money coming from?
~ The new Lowe’s in south Scottsdale is totally cool! It really peps up that area! I wonder if we could convince the city to put an Ikea store on the Sky Swindle property? At least we’d make a profit from it!
~ We are winter visitor property owners and spend 6-7 months a year in Scottsdale. Last week we tuned in to watch the City Council meeting about transportation and light rail. What the (heck) is this City Council thinking? It is obvious that they want to ruin this city and all its charm. A good council would want to preserve the character of the city not ruin it. We are not interested in having a big transportation system. We pay taxes on our expensive property here and our voice should count, so therefore we’ll say no to their plan. City Council, you are again heading in the wrong direction for Scottsdale!
~ Well here we go. SkyDiaper is just another iron building with nothing special about the design. We've been royally screwed over by Michael Crow of ASU to the tune of over 130 million dollars and climbing............
~ Information You Can Use
~ 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
~ View Past City Council Meetings
We can now access the city council meetings by clicking on the following link:
http://scottsdale.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3If you have any problems, check your firewall and other safety features which could block access to the city site.
~Continuing Light Rail Information
The Scottsdale Citizens
Transportation Study Committee invites you to view their website for
more questions and answers at
www.norailforscottsdale.com .
================================================================
Simply click on the links below to get all the information you'll ever need concerning Light Rail.
If you have any questions about light rail, send them to editor@scottsdaleactivist.com and we'll get the answers to you as soon as we can.
~
For Continuing Information
on Photo Radar,
Click on the Logo below.
~Are Red-Light Cameras Fair to Drivers?
These modern-day robocops make ticketing easier and can be huge moneymakers for local governments. But critics question their accuracy and fret over privacy issues.
Click on the link below , then scroll down to read the article:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/AreRedLightCamerasFairToDrivers.aspx
~ Scottsdale Legal Defense Fund
The Scottsdale Activist is very pleased to announce an effort on the behalf of the residents and taxpayers of the city of Scottsdale to promote open, honest and accountable city government. The Scottsdale Legal Defense Fund (SLDF) has been created to take legal action to hold the City accountable when its actions are contrary to state law, the City Charter, City ordinances or the public interest.
The most necessary ingredient to make the SLDF work will be confidential contributions from concerned Scottsdale citizens who are willing to help their community. By contributing, we can change the way City Hall does business and insure that our tax dollars will be spent wisely.
No funds from the SLDF
will or can be used for any political purpose.Contributions shall be kept confidential as
permissible by law and can be made in any Washington Mutual Bank
to account number 3114165786 for the Scottsdale Legal Defense
Fund. Branch locations are listed below. Contributions are not tax
deductible.
The SLDF has retained the law firm of Miller LaSota & Peters, PLC, in
connection with the patently illegal action taken by the Mayor and
Council appointing the most recent Scottsdale City Attorney, while
ignoring the residency requirement of the Scottsdale City Charter even
though the new City Attorney’s contract (according to Scottsdale
Republic reporter Laurie Roberts) requires that she reside in
Scottsdale. The City Council action was based on a legal opinion
which was reportedly rendered during a closed door Executive Session of
the City Council by a subordinate to the then acting City Attorney, who
was subsequently appointed to the City Attorney position by a vote
during a public City Council meeting. The opinion has been requested as
a public document under state law, but the City has not yet provided it.
The SLDF will take other appropriate legal actions based on the conduct
of the Mayor and Council.
Washington Mutual Bank Locations at which contributions to the SLDF can be made are:
72nd & Shea 7337 E. Shea Blvd #120 480-609-8524
Hayden & Chaparral 7908 E. Chaparral # C-113 480-949-0069
Horizon 14854 N Frank Lloyd Wright
480-614-6660
Scottsdale Ranch
10155 E. Via Linda Blvd #131 480-767-2060
Kierland Village 6501 E. Greenway Pkwy #133 480-315-2905
There are many other branches throughout the Valley.
Hello All,
This seems to work well. Click on the link below to Check it out. Helpful hint! Just plug in your zip code and it tells you which gas stations have the cheapest prices (and the highest) on gas in your zip code area. It's updated every evening.
Be a good neighbor and pass this along.
|
~
Scottsdale Development Update
~ ~ Report a Problem ~ ~ City Services ~ ~ Mayor & Council ~ ~ City Council Members ~ ~ Mary Manross ~ ~ Betty Drake ~ ~ Wayne Ecton ~
~
WJ "Jim" Lane ~ |
~
Important City Meetings
~ ~ Website Contacts ~ ~ Shout & Spout ~ ~ Editor ~
~
Webmaster
~ |
The Scottsdale Activist is published, and edited in Scottsdale AZ ~ 480-326-2475