June 14^th, 2007,

 ~ Why I Voted for the Budget

I received some questions this week from citizens who wanted to know why I did not vote against the budget this year.  They wanted to know if I had changed my mind about my belief that Scottsdale spends too much money.

The answer is that I voted for this year’s oversized budget for the same reason I voted for oversized budgets for the last five years, which is that the way we do budgets in Scottsdale because there is no way to throw out the waste without getting rid of the good stuff.

An excellent example of this is the upgrades we passed for police pay.  In the 2004 election the citizens of Scottsdale voted overwhelmingly for more police.  We have yet to deliver all of the extra police that the public wants.  That is partially because it takes a long time (for good reasons) to train a new officer and get him or her on the street.  But another problem was that our police comp package was not competitive with other cities.  To fix this problem Councilman Nelssen and I worked for a police comp package that changes their pay ranges in a way that allows us to attract the police candidates that we need to fulfill our promises to the citizens of Scottsdale.

I am pleased to say that we got that improved police comp package, along with other important allocations such as the money to finish Troon North Park (which we have been promising since 2000) and to relocate the Rose Garden.  But to get these important items I had to accept expenditures that I do not like and consider wasteful.

There was never a four-vote coalition to keep what I believe are the good things IN the budget while tossing what  I believe are the bad things OUT of the budget.

Bottom line, the problem is the process, whereby we examine the City Manager’s budget in arrears rather than setting budget limits for her in advance, and where everything starts out IN the budget and needs four votes to be tossed out, as opposed to true zero-based budgeting, where everything starts OUT OF the budget and needs four votes to be included.  Since every expenditure has a constituency, nothing gets voted out. 

I suggested last year that we implement the simple but powerful changes of setting budget limits in advance and true zero-based budgeting, but could not get majority support for doing so.  I have no sympathy for anyone who opposed these changes last year and who now complains that the budget is too fat.  They had their chance to implement real budget reform and passed on it, so their current complaints seem hollow to me.

I also have a problem with those who were happy to give our top managers 8% raises (which I voted against) while suggesting that the rank-and-file employees (the ones who actually deliver services to the residents of Scottsdale) are somehow being coddled with 6% raises.  Shades of Enron and WorldCom!

Another problem that increases city spending enormously is that over the last few years the City Council has committed to large chunks of spending outside of the normal budget process.  The best example of this is SkySong.  When that project was approved the City Council committed this city to $180M in spending, totally outside of the normal budget process and with little expectation (and certainly no guarantee) of any of that money ever being reimbursed to the city treasury.  The city financed the capital costs of acquiring land for that project by issuing Municipal Property Corporation (MPC) bonds.  Unlike the General Obligation (GO) bonds that you use to fund things such as parks and sewers, MPC bonds can be issued without a vote of the people, which is why you did not get a chance to vote on whether or not the City should have funded SkySong.  We also issued tens of millions of dollars in MPC bonds to fund land purchases for WestWorld.

I am happy to vote for real reform in our budget process, which would mean setting budget limits in advance, true zero-based budgeting, and a halt to bypassing both the budget process and the right of the citizens to vote on large projects. 

Maybe in January 2009 there will be four Council votes to make that happen.

Councilman Bob Littlefield
bob@boblittlefield.com

Word has it that Craig Jackson is attempting to get the State Land Trust to accept his offer to either lease to or sell to Jackson and company, the land that Russo and Steele Collector Automobile Auction has asked the state to lease to it in addition to the parcel it have used for a number of years.

We strongly suspect that Mayor Manross, a personal friend of Craig Jackson according to the press, will do her best to make sure Jackson gets what he wants if she can pull it off as payment for him keeping his Barrett-Jackson Auction at West World.

Why would Craig Jackson sully his seemingly perfect and upstanding reputation by trying to pull off such a slimy, shady Manross-type of deal when, to date, he has been seen by the majority of the public as a White Knight riding in on a White Horse to save what is, to some, a treasured city venue?

Why did Manross take the negotiations with Barrett-Jackson away from Dolan?

There is too much going on in the secret hidden bowels of city hall led by Manross and Dolan which need to be opened to the public immediately.

The Russo Steele Collectors Auction has been a good friend and producer of tax and retail revenue for the city of Scottsdale since its inception. Why would anyone in city government try to, or help to, sabotage Russo Steele’s effort to expand its venue unless there is something going on under the table or behind the scenes in the secret Manross/Jackson negotiation.

Is Craig Jackson the "White Knight" he has been portrayed to be, or is he just another Wheeler-Dealer trying to bleed the city taxpayers for all he can get with the help of Mayor Mary Manross who, in anticipation of next year’s elections, may be all too willing to make a deal at any price. 

It would seem to most that City Manager Jan Dolan is running scared and hiding information that should be public information. Inquiring minds would like to know.

Why is Dolan running scared?

The illusive 4^th vote needed to dump Dolan:

A word to the wise for Dolan: If you can’t run with the big dogs, crawl back under the porch! Or, Lead, Follow, or Get the Hell out of the way!

So far as we can see, she can’t lead or follow so that only leaves her one choice: Get the Hell out of the way by resigning before you are fired.

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This week, the Investigative Reporters and Editors met in Phoenix to remember the late Don Bolles who was killed when a bomb exploded in his car while working on leads to a story involving criminal activity in Phoenix.

Many people think that real investigative journalism is long gone thanks to the need for speed in being the first to get the story "on-line." Even our newspapers are focusing more on BLOGGING to get news and make news.

Frankly, it would appear that more people are interested in seeing their "tags" on the BLOGS commenting on stories rather than getting the whole story and understanding the impacts.

Corporations call the shots more often regarding what is reported, in print or online, and that interferes with the investigative process.

So, when information is not forth coming it becomes more important for citizens to ask questions. Where do they go when they ask those questions? On line these days, that is where.

A Free Press is in danger as much today from corporate ownership as from government secrecy.

Investigative journalists came together for the Arizona Project to help find those responsible for the murder of Don Bolles in 1976, and there are many international, well known reporters here to remember him and to learn more about their craft.

Hopefully, the impacts of corporation and government bias will be part of their discussion to preserve a Free Press and the field of quality investigative journalism setting the highest standards for local, state, national and international reporting.

The Scottsdale Activist is not part of the "Establishment", corporate America, or any of the local, county, or state governments, or any organized group of any persuasion for that matter.

Because we don’t belong to any of those groups and protect our sources, we get tips and leads from deep within our local city government which are made public solely in an effort to clean up the city of Scottsdale government and expose those who would gain from certain "frills" by "caving in" or capitulating to private/secret demands and offers from less than honest or up front persons whose only goals are based on greed and legacies.

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Our Scottsdale City Council is anything but an open, transparent governmental system. In fact, the Mayor and her Council members try, at all cost, to cloak themselves in secrecy. Why must they hide behind the big C word…CONFIDENTIALITY?

Better asked is: What do they have to hide?

If you ask Jan Dolan, she has plenty to hide. Not only does she NOT want us to see her self-evaluation provided during her last pay raise and employment evaluation period, but she doesn’t want citizens nosing around in any of her other city related business either! Could it be that Jan does not have, in total, the experience or qualifications as referenced in the City Charter, Article 3, Section 2 to do her jobs as City Manager and City Treasurer? The Charter clearly outlines that she need possess administrative qualifications and actual experience in her area of duty in order to be appointed to that position. Knowing plenty about Jan’s background and previous work ethic, the details of which are frighteningly similar to her behaviors and mannerisms as seen in her current position at the City of Scottsdale, I, for one, am questioning her qualifications. Why can’t we get a copy of Jan’s resume? Jan is a CITY employee and her documentation, transmissions, emails, etc. should all be subject to public disclosure. Yet Jan hides behind the cleverly positioned cloak of secrecy and confidentiality, supported by our dimwitted Mayor and her sidekick, tweedle dum, the City Attorney. This is clearly someone who has something to hide.

Our Mayor and Council use many excuses for this secrecy, but the best one of the lot is that they, the secrets, are safe in Executive Session. And apparently, those sessions are called on a very frequent basis for even the minutes of discussions are confidential to prevent the public from obtaining information concerning them. Robberson claims that Jan’s self-evaluation was "prepared" at the bequest of the Mayor and Council for the employment evaluation held, of course, in Executive Session. Again hiding behind the "confidentiality" of the Executive Session. Where is the line drawn?

Couldn’t everything be "prepared" for Executive Session if the Mayor so chose to conduct all of the Council’s business in that manner? Couldn’t she state that emails about a certain subject are confidential because earlier that week, after they were exchanged, the matter was scheduled for and discussed in Executive Session? How far will our esteemed Mayor go to protect her indiscretionary procedures? Does she feel pressured by the constant barrage of requests from citizens for memos, emails, documents and inquiries into Council business? If our government were as transparent as Council wants us to believe it is, then we’d never have reason to examine critical documentation produced by our leaders, would we?

All of this rhetoric begs the question: what exactly do these people have to hide? When I hear Council members drone on about how they participate in open and legitimate governmental practices, the vomit rises in my throat. Nothing could be further from the actual truth. How long will this lying and secrecy in Executive Session continue?

The more important question is: how long will we, as citizens, allow it to continue? While our City Charter may deserve some future revision and perhaps, tightening up, it does serve a purpose for those to whom it applies. Then again, those applicable persons make an ethical mockery of our governmental system in general – what’s a little abuse of our City Charter? They’ll discuss it in Executive Session…it’ll be THEIR secret.

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~ Scottsdale Struggles to Keep Managers?

It’s been reported by a number of people that a high ranking Scottsdale employee went searching for, and found a great new and better paying job in the realm of a GM position in another valley city thereby leaving the rancor and indecision running rampant through Scottsdale government behind.

Not to be outdone, a Scottsdale Assistant City Manager either matched or probably more correctly, increased the offer over the competing city. The reason reportedly was Scottsdale couldn’t afford to lose any more management personnel. Due to the low morale and management style of both Manross and Dolan, managers have been jumping ship right and left if you haven’t been paying attention. All our good people have been replaced with people many feel may be far less qualified than those who moved on and who also knew the unique and world renowned city history which is vitally important to the residents whom have resided here more than 7 years.

One of our main questions is very simple: How much was the raise this high ranking city employee received to stay on board the crippled and sinking ship called the HMS Manross/Dolan? 10%? 15%? 20%? Dolan and some others received 8%, the regular city employees received 6%. This person although well qualified, isn’t really that unique, so why the apparent huge increase? Or is it that without this person the remaining department management team takes the department into the toilet post haste?

This high ranking city employee is part of the management team for one of the most disheveled, disorganized, and out of control departments with the lowest morale in the city system and it’s getting worse by the day due to what, in our opinion, is totally incompetent management starting with the Field Manager and going right up the ladder to Dolan.

Why wouldn’t a person stay when offered more money and a trumped up title when the job itself stays the same? You and I certainly would……. or would we if there were shades of total incompetence around us which would reflect directly on our decisions later in our careers? Think about that one.

We suggest the person described herein reconsider, because they know who they are, need to take the job in the other valley city to be free of the omnidirectional, incompetence offered by the current Scottsdale administration and City Council majority, and more importantly to preserve their career.

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Scottsdale City Government must stop approving any and all further development inconsistent with current zoning until there have been hearings into what the public wants in terms of overlays, general plan improvements, residential rules and tightened and redefined ordinances rather than what Mary Manross, her developer buddies, the Planning Commission & DRB, or Jan Dolan want.

We are seeing a plethora of new applications since the council, sadly with Councilman Jim Lane on their side, approved developments that the citizens were fully against such as the Earll Street development and the SonRise Church fiasco as well as others. John Berry has an entire fist full of new high rise and high density projects because of those ill-conceived approvals that the taxpayers definitely don’t want and will fight hard to stop.

Let’s listen to the public for a change. The public DOES know what it wants and what they are willing to accept and pay for. If you pay for something, don’t you want some meaningful input and a voice in the decision? Scores of us have moved here and stayed here because Scottsdale was a family friendly, and a single family home friendly community with above average homes on above average sized lots, and above average but low profile (height & density) neighborhood retail centers with good to great schools and an open and highly responsive government. No more.

With all the urban height and density Manross and company, including Lane, seem to want, the vision of Scottsdale which stood out from the other cities in the valley, is now becoming just another ho-hum city desperately working to get in on a fad which will fade in less than a decade and leave us with slums and derelict buildings reminiscent of Chicago and New York where "desirable" high end condos, brownstones, and penthouses once stood.

Scottsdale DOESN’T NEED any more tax revenue than it already receives if spending is controlled and the infrastructure, parks and other public amenities are upgraded to meet current uses and standards. Further, the city is already losing millions of dollars annually because the apartment-to-condo fad encouraged by the Manross crowd has markedly reduced taxable rental income in the city.

There is nothing so pitiful as a bunch elected and appointed government types who have no clue as to what the citizens want and go blindly ahead like a snowball headed straight for hell, to quote a phrase because of greed or legacies which bring the public nothing but debt for as far into the future as we can see (SkyFlop).

The only thing more pitiful is citizens who allow those pitiful politicos to screw us over as they are currently doing.

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 ~ More Dangerous "Neighborhood Entry" Islands

Well, here we go again. The Transportation Department under Mary O'Connor and decreed by Jan Dolan, is planning to install even more of those dangerous and expensive to install and maintain islands on 82nd Street between Indian School and Osborn.

As one of our readers stated in the Shouts and Spouts section of this edition, "So much for public outreach…………."

Most interesting of all is that they have posted some as cross walks, signs and all, yet there are zero crosswalk lines painted where they belong.

Speaking of poorly marked street signs, How about the "right turn only" arrow at west bound Hayden at McDonald. They painted it with white paint on light gray concrete instead of the dark rubberized asphalt as it should have been as seen in the picture on the right. Why???

Again, we look at the incompetence of either the paint crew, which I doubt, but most probably the engineer who designed and didn't have a clue as to the difference if would make.

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~ Ineptitude Rules in Scottsdale

Isn’t it time someone mentioned the ^$2.2 million dollars legal fees that the City has paid out in hopes of settling the controversy with Toll Brothers regarding the entrance to the Preserve?

Ms. Mary has been very silent on this extravagant use of our tax dollars caused by our inept City Manager and the City Attorney. Nor has she or Ms. Dolan said anything specific about the Mayors personally involved progress on the Barrett-Jackson situation.

Would be nice to have some truth on these matters from our City Hall "leadership"

Best regards,

Paul Reich
Scottsdale

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 ~ Where is Code Enforcement?

I can’t believe the weeds growing around the new water plant at Hayden and McDonald.

Where is Code Enforcement when we need them for a city owned and operated plant for goodness sakes. I’m so embarrassed!! A beautiful dog park and we have to walk past Russian Thistles 3 feet tall as well as other weeds which are growing out over the roadway no less.

Jan is busy with God knows what, Code Enforcement must be on hiatus,  the council except Bob & Tony never venture out to see the real city, and our Mayor has no clue about any of it.

We're in such a nasty but unnecessary mess in Scottsdale in so many ways politically as well as how the city is being taken care of.

You take a look at these pictures and tell me what you think about it.

What a sad state of affairs.

Name withheld by request
Park Scottsdale Resident

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~ Lisa Haskell = La La Land

This morning, Saturday the 9^th of 2007 I read an article in the East Valley Tribune from that pasty little gnat that goes by the name of Lisa Haskell promoting her "opinion" of what we should do to widen Pima Road.

First of all Ms. Haskell is not a Pima Road Corridor Resident of any portion of the 8 mile stretch and really has no business pushing her twisted little agenda over the objections of the thousands of residents who live along the corridor and we would love to see her do what she has threatened us with for years, moving out of our city for non other than California Living.

Ms. Haskell also does not have a clue as to what she is promoting as the plan, as we have made clear before, is to widen Pima to be used as a reliever for the Loop 101 and it’s piss poor design.

Ms. Haskell in her clueless evaluation of the issue is still too dense to understand that Pima Road is not what people use to get to the gaming casinos or even the new development along the corridor, it is the freeway they use to get to these places. Maybe she could get a grip on reality to understand that Pima only gets backed up when the freeway is jammed during the rush hour times and other than that Pima road is usually a vacant street.

Now she expresses her thoughts that the taxpayers of Scottsdale should be burdened with covering the costs of widening Pima when the land she talks about is not even the city’s property and we have already spent millions of dollars fixing it, maintaining it, and improving it pedestrian wise. Further to the point of funding of this, whether it be in part or in full is that the money, ^$40 million dollars is from the year of 2002 and that the costs have to have been increased over the years as everything else has gone up in price so the real tab is probably closer to ^$60 or ^$80 million dollars.

First of all the Indian Community will never pay that tab and secondly the taxpayers of Scottsdale will never pay for it either.

Personally, the residents of the corridor of Pima Road would like to inform Ms. Haskell that if she does not live here to listen to the noise we already have from the freeway and that we do not want Pima widened to relieve the freeway and add more noise and cut through traffic to our communities and we believe she should crawl back into her little hole and keep her yap shut about an issue she has no business sticking her pasty little nose into, and frankly knows very little if anything about.

Michael Merrill
Pima Corridor Resident.

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 ~ Stop This Double-Secret Insanity

I have lived in Scottsdale for a long time, and I am still amazed at the incompetence of this City Council and City Manager. Just in the last week or so we have seen numerous examples or poor management, inept leadership and an extreme lack of ethical decision making. I’m not politically naïve. I know politicians will pander to certain groups of voters and special interests, but it is the extreme lack of ability on the part of so many which is frustrating about our city government.

We have "double-secret" evaluation of the City Manager/City Treasurer. Jan Dolan was given her dual Charter Officer position under dubious circumstances, and now the evaluation which led to a raise is held from the public’s view. Many of the items on the Council’s agenda deal with paying more legal fees for situations which were either avoidable or could have been negotiated. But even though we have more attorneys per capita than any other municipality in the county, we continue to pay millions of dollars to outside law firms because our attorneys are not competent enough to handle the affairs that our Mayor and City Manager have thrust upon them.

We have gone backwards in our efforts to improve traffic, our budget is growing at a rate which exceeds by double digits our expected growth in revenues. How long before that blows up in our face?

I can’t wait for the next election. It is time to clean house and stop this insanity.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Tom Raleigh
Fed Up Scottsdale Resident

In December 2005, this office provided the public with online access to the electronic documents on file in the City Clerk's Office (Council agendas, minutes, ordinances, resolutions and contracts).  As a result, Internet users were able to access these records using a specific date, a range of dates or the document number.  However, if the user did not have this information, it became difficult and time consuming to find the record.

I am very pleased to announce that a full text search engine has been added to the Archived City Clerk Documents Internet website to assist users in locating their documents more easily and quickly.  Here is a link to the new site:

Once a user enters the document type and a date or date range, he or she is given the option of entering a word or phrase in a keyword search field that will help narrow the results.  For example, let's say a user wants to find a resolution that was passed this year allowing the City to participate in the creation of a regional master plan for Papago Park.  Using only the date range of 1/1/2007 to 6/4/2007 as the search criteria results in a list of 124 resolutions.  Each of the resolutions must then be viewed one at a time until the correct resolution is displayed.  If the user narrows the search by entering the keyword Papago, only one result is returned.

This new feature has been a long-term goal of the Clerk's Office and is the result of a Citywide electronic document management project that has been underway for the past three years.  I would like to use this opportunity to offer special recognition to the City employees who worked on the project: Chief Deputy City Clerk Laura Zook; Senior Development Coordinator Steve Parr; Enterprise System Integrator Carla Vala; Enterprise System Integrator Judy Silverthorn; Application Development Manager Cleavon Blair; and Senior Development Coordinator Clarke Isackson.

We will be working with CAPA to issue a press release to advise the public of this convenient new feature in the very near future.

Best regards,

Carolyn Jagger,
CMC City Clerk

From: Keisner, Sheri (SKEISNER@SCOTTSDALEAZ.GOV)

Fri 6/01/07 4:13 PM

Dear Friends,  

I am pleased to forward you this message from Scottsdale’s Mayor, Mary Manross regarding your cultural interests and activities. Please take some time to access the link attached and complete the survey so that the final results will reflect the full richness and diversity of cultural expression in our community.  You have received this message because you have previously expressed interest in learning more about and participating in community activities, meetings and events.   

Thank  you , 

Susan Conklu

Dear Friends,

I encourage you to take a few minutes to participate in the 2007 Scottsdale Cultural Census, a survey about your cultural interests and activities.  Your answers will help the city and the Scottsdale Cultural Council to understand what types of cultural programs and facilities should be considered in the future.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.  At the end of the survey, you may enter a drawing to win a $500 cash prize.

To participate in the survey, go to www.culturalcensus.com.

Mayor Mary Manross
City of Scottsdale

P.S.  Please forward this message to your friends

 ~ Community Area Planning

The Coalition of Greater Scottsdale is watching with great interest the City’s new Community Area Planning (aka Village Planning) process that is under development. This process is supposed to create a channel for citizens to tell the City how they want their particular part of town to develop in the future. The City is updating the General Plan, and staff is working toward making Community Area Planning part of this process. The General Plan is the guidance document for all City development; whereas the Zoning Code is how the guidance is legally implemented. The General Plan update is required by State Statute.

The City’s planning staff have identified six areas that will be addressed individually, and together where they border each other. These areas include Downtown, South Scottsdale, Shea Corridor, Airpark Area, McDowell Vistas, and Tonto Foothills.

Preliminary plans have the Downtown area listed as first for consideration, followed by the Airpark area. COGS members have suggested to City staff that South Scottsdale be considered in conjunction with Downtown. Many of the new projects that are so drastically affecting our older neighborhoods are being advanced where the City’s Downtown and South Scottsdale border each other, in the so called "zipper zones" between the two.

Sequence of consideration is important. However, even more important is the makeup of the Community Area Planning committees that will serve each area. We don’t know yet how members will be selected, how many there will be, and exactly what will be their authority and the nature of guidance they will be able to provide to City staff and/or the Council.

Community Area Planning could be a great thing for Scottsdale. However, it could also turn into another ‘rubber stamp’ like the current Planning Commission and the Development Review Board. These two in particular have shown complete disregard for, if not outright contempt toward, citizens who are concerned about higher density, impact on neighborhoods, and shortcomings in infrastructure.

We should all keep our fingers on the pulse of this process.

Information on the City’s website about Community Area Planning is available at

https://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/design/updates/default.asp

John Washington, COGS Chair
480.229.1831

john@ReactionResearch.com

 ~Early Candidate for the Land of Oz

Okay, I did a bit before about the only Oz candidate for the ‘08 election who has stepped forward, and may I add a bit early at that.

On Tuesday I was still painting my patio (the danged thing is bigger than I thought) and had the TV set for the council meeting when who do you think caught my attention?

That danged Joel whatever his last name is and begins with a B and that is far as I am going with it.

You gotta love this guy, you really do! Did anyone else hear what the guy was presenting as a petition, and a citizens one at that?

He wants the council of Oz to consider a Charter amendment to limit the terms of the "Council" to two terms only. Now, I could be mistaken, but you know how I feel about that, but the council of Oz is already limited to two terms I thought?

Wait, I believe Joel stuck his foot in his blow hole this time as the only thing he could have been directing his comments and petition to would be the Wicked Witch of Oz’s title.

Hey Joel, I understand your comments said you were not attacking the Mayor, but did you ever stop to think that it may not have been a good ideal to go after the Wicked Witch of Oz so early into the pre-season elections?

Joel did hit on a subject that again made me stop swinging my paint brush and listen of a moment. Joel hit on the subject of "knowing how hard it is to find money for his campaign".

Well Joel, here is a clue you should try to remember; it could have been easier for candidates to run and pay for a campaign if we had a form of "Districts" and that is what your petition should have pertained to.

Think about it Joel, a representative from your own area, known by your own community, speaking for your community area and the peoples wishes. Wait, I think I was skipping down the "Yellow Brick Road" because COPP and the Wicked Witch pissed all over the road with lies about how it would destroy Scottsdale.

Guess what Joel, not only did you make a deadly mistake with Larry Manross, the Wicked Witch’s husband, all the fling monkeys around the Witch , but you may have signed your death warrant with non other than the Wizard of Oz ( Jan Dolan).

If the Wicked Witch returns to her throne Joel, the Witch and the Wizard will begin grooming someone to take her place and maintain order of Oz by dictatorship and the casting of Mystical spells that suck the intelligence out of Ozites.

Guess who’s life force will be sucked out first Joel and transported to the "Land of NEVER, NEVER"?

You got it!

Councilman Littlefield, another well noted leader of the Land of Oz, pissed away the chance to do something he always says he stands for, "fiscal restraint"!

Bob had a chance to throw the budget in a tizzy over the issue of a basic 6% increase in pay to staff, that really is an 11% increase in pay, which shoves the budget up another ^$10 MILLION DOLLARS a year for ETERNITY or until we go broke, and you can easily guess which will come first?

Now, if I had been at that meeting, Bob would have been sorry as I would have used two hands to swing the "stupid stick" that night. I mean really Bob; I have yet to hear a damn thing from you that makes any sense as to why or even how you could support this action against the rest of the taxpayers of Oz

Did one of the flying monkeys hit you in the head?

Does Bob of Oz , realize that the money he is getting ready to piss away is nothing more than a ploy to try to stem the hatred of employees rising up against the Wicked Witch and the Wizard?

I don’t get it Bob and I really think you owe the Ozites an explanation as to your thinking, then I will mass duplicate my stupid stick so every tax payer can hit you with it.

All stupid sticks will disappear after three whacks though so make them count against anyone else you feel needs it, they also self destruct after 48 hours so find your friends fast.

Last week I gave Robert Leger the Butt Nugget Award of the month and I guess it ticked off someone as I have run into someone called "Anna" in the Blog sections of the Repugnant of Oz after his award.

Now Anna is a clueless person who loves to take pot shots at me because I have no political correctness and speak my mind. After all, those who know me can repeat my motto of "there are only two things in my life I fear, my wife and my dentist."

Ozites should log into the Repugnant of Oz online and read some of the things Anna says about me as I found them pretty funny to read also, sometimes I go back and read them again.

After you read them though, e-mail me and tell me if you think it is not non other than the flying monkey of South Scottsdale, the one that only fly’s when it can figure out which way the activists are heading and goes by the name of Lisa Haskell. One of the other ways you can figure it out is that the writer can never give any factual evidence to any subject that is being discussed, just the ramblings of one of the Ozites lost and clueless.

Just looking at the style of writing will give you a heads up as to who it is.

I just hope Robert has not stated dating.

My ASS!

I want to know what the Wizard glorified herself with in her "self-evaluation" that we are paying to see.

Paying to see because we are being sued by the East Valley Tribune to hand over what is a public document. A document that no one can claim is above public scrutiny as there is nothing in writing that says it is confidential to my understanding.

It does not matter if it was discussed in "executive session" as the discussion is not in question, it is the public document.

Of course the Wicked Witch and all the flying monkeys decided that the Wizards words of wisdom need to be kept confidential and we will shell out "another" 20K to defend that stupidity.

Needless to say the Wizard also feels the need to keep her comments to only those she is responsible to for employment and the rest of the Ozites who are her employers can kiss off.

This is a lawsuit Ozites should be happy pay for even though we should have given the money for this to the Senior Daycare that just had to close and we should hope the judge agrees with the Ozites in this one as they have done before with these hiding of public documents. Hey, your tax dollars paid for the paper she wrote it on so we should be able to see it.

When the city loses, we can only hope that the issue of funding for her appeal is denied by a new council and that the Wicked Witch finally gets hit with a bucket of water and has melted from the city and Ozites site forever.

~Lane digs a deeper hole out of Oz

You would figure by now that one of the Councilman of Oz would learn not to make public comment on the issues of planning and development in the land of Oz as there are certain things he still does not understand. One of the biggest ones is the fact there is no plan Mr. Lane.

On Friday, the only paper that covers issues in the Land of Oz and is not another government shill, the East Valley Tribune, did an article on the issue of the 4020 building downtown.

Now the 4020 building sits adjacent to Old Town and the first design was of such a hideous nature that the council had to bring it back from the DRB and deny the application on the grounds it looks to far out of whack to be that close to Old Town.

Mr. Lane had plenty of comments that shows the truth of what I have written about his policy of not being a protector of Oz and has become another shill for developers and the destruction of the downtown and old town areas as well as the Southern and the Northern communities.

Mr. Lane says that if official of Oz make the redevelopment process to onerous, it may drive investors away from Downtown.

Again Mr. Lane, we will repeat this and hope it gets through that thick head of yours, there is no PLAN and you are spewing hot air and trash when you make such stupid comments.

I quote Mr. Lane here when he says, "We’ve got to be careful we don’t kill the goose that laid the golden eggs by being to difficult". First off Jim, that come from a different story book and you have to remember you live and do the business of the Land of Oz, not Mother Goose.

Investors have been pouring money into downtown since they lifted the redevelopment designation that was destroying downtown for the hopes that developers like Fred Unger could further blight it and buy up the land like the Scottsdale Hospital was doing to build there campus.

Mr. Lane’s comments show once again the fact that he is not a person that can be trusted by residents and merchants of Oz to protect them from the ongoing piece meal approach to development in the city and he must be removed from the Oz council.

The shear FACTS of his comments over his tenure regarding developers versus community proves he has become another government shill that will never support community over greedy developers and a planning department that is as clueless about community as the wicked witch and the wizard are.

Face it Mr. Lane, your business savvy will not support your re-election when you continue to cross paths with the community and those of us who are tired of no plans and piecemeal development that are destroying the city in many areas.

 ~ So Craig Jackson with Mayor Manross undoubtedly behind him, is trying to bury the Russo-Steele Antique Auction according to the Trib. Why should we or the city allow that to happen? We were supportive of Mr. Jackson, but we will be totally against him now if he continues down this nasty path.

 ~ Isn't Jan Dolan looking for a new job? Didn't we hear that from more than one source? Maybe her many failures here in Scottsdale are working against her. OMG!! does that mean we're stuck with her?

 ~ I absolutely HATE reading your website but without it, we wouldn't know how crooked, secret, and stupid  this city government really is.

 ~ How many businesses outside the city of Scottsdale are members of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce? 30%, 40%, 50%, or maybe even 60%?

~ http://www.dirtyscottsdale.com/ This website shows the result of the Mayor and Dolan's campaign to attract the 24/7 crowd to downtown.  We are so proud! (barf)

 ~Well Worth the Read

JOHN CARLSON'S IOWA
May 23, 2007

A tired and disgusted Iowa soldier fired off an e-mail a few days ago, telling family and friends how things are going in Iraq.

A Blackhawk helicopter pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Jim Funk has flown more than 80 combat missions since he arrived there in October.

He described his Boone-based unit's successes after 5,000 hours of flying out of LSA Anaconda, a huge American base north of Baghdad. He talked about the tragedies he and his fellow Iowans have witnessed and his worries of becoming complacent as he goes on mission after mission.

Morale?

"We're treading water," the Ames man told the people closest to him. "We continue to kick butt on missions and take care of each other, even though we know the American public and government DOES NOT stand behind us.

Ohhhh, they all say they support us, but how can you support me (the soldier) if you don't support my mission or my objectives. We watch the news over here. Every time we turn it on we see the American public and Hollywood conducting protests and rallies against our 'illegal occupation' of Iraq."

His greatest frustration? The performance of the people who deliver the news to the American people.

I'll let him say it, in his own words, in the letter, which found its way to me:

"Hello media, do you know you indirectly kill American soldiers every day? You inspire and report the enemy's objective every day. You are the enemy's greatest weapon. The enemy cannot beat us on the battlefield so all he does is try to wreak enough havoc and have you report it every day. With you and the enemy using each other, you continually break the will of the American public and American government.

"We go out daily and bust and kill the enemy, uncover and destroy huge weapons caches and continue to establish infrastructure. So daily we put a whoopin on the enemy, but all the enemy has to do is turn on the TV and get re-inspired. He gets to see his daily roadside bomb, truck bomb, suicide bomber or mortar attack. He doesn't see any accomplishments of the U.S. military (FOX, you're not exempt, you suck also).

"Let's give you an example. A couple of days ago we conducted an air assault. We lifted troops into an area for an operation. The operation went well and our ground troops killed (insurgents) and took several prisoners, freed a few hostages and uncovered a weapons cache containing munitions and chemicals that were going to be used in improvised bombs.

"The next morning I woke up and turned on AFN (Armed Forces Network) and watched the nightly news (NBC). Nothing, none of that reported. But the daily car bomb report was reported, and the file footage was not even from the event. There was a car bomb in the Sadr City area and your news report showed old car bomb footage from another part of town from some other time.

"So we really set the enemy back that night but all the enemy had to do was turn on the news and be reassured that the enemy's agenda (objective) was still going to be fed to the American public.

"We, the soldiers, keep breaking the back of the enemy. You, the media, keep rejuvenating the enemy.

"How hard would it be to contact the PAO (public affairs officer) of the 1st CAV, 36th CAB, 25th ID or the Marines and ask what did you guys accomplish today - good and bad? How about some insurgent blooper videos? Now that would be something to show on the evening news.

"Media, we know you hate the George Bush administration, but report both sides, not just your one-sided agenda. You have got to realize how you are continually motivating every extremist, jihadist and terrorist to continue their resolve to kill American soldiers."

It's a punch in the nose to the news media from Funk, 39, a full-time employee of the Iowa National Guard.

Why did he write it?

"I am just tired of busting my butt over here and coming home every night and turning on the TV (Armed Forces Network) and hearing how we are failing miserably," he told me in an e-mail.

You may agree with what Funk has to say. You may not.

Many in my business certainly won't. But Funk is a soldier, fighting a war, who has earned the right to be heard.

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~ Information You Can Use

Just click on the logos below to go to these websites.

Send our Brave Troops "Something from Home", Click on  Links below.

Gathering of  Eagles Website was launched 2/9/07. Click on the Logo above for more information on how they are protecting America's Memorials.

 ~ Prop 13 Arizona

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~ 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,

 www.obsessionthemovie.com

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

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~ View Past City Council Meetings

We can now access the city council meetings by clicking on the following link:

If 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.

     Goldwater Institute Report

     American Dream Coalition

    The Public Purpose

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.

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~ For Continuing Information on Photo Radar,
Click on the Logo below.

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 ~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

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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:

72^nd & 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.