Volume
'07-33
Published
Late Saturdays
August 18, 2007
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~ Power Grab at Taxpayers Expense?
Maybe a few minutes should again be devoted to the ongoing situation at Horseshoe Falls.
The City Council voted for a site plan that designated that the remainder of the parcel, after Horseshoe Falls was built, to be used for retail development. This was based on the fact that Frank Gray should have known by the record that property owner Richard Funke, and previous city planner’s had a very valid position that the entire site was created for retail development by council vote, thus the token remainder was specifically designated for retail development and nothing else.
Totally ignoring the approved site plan, Frank Gray instructed the architects to cover the entire site with the booster station! This was and is outrageous behavior by the city’s land planner and new zoning administrator as well as a serious waste of prime retail and tax revenue space, especially when we desperately need to increase tax revenues due to this administrations outrageous spending spree.
We can only assume the rules did not apply to him for some unknown reason (Dolan’s orders we’d bet hard money). He was then instructed, again most probably by Dolan, to move the station back to the east end of the property, allowing the designated retail portion free again for development.
Never mind that the top city land planner
apparently doesn’t have the foggiest idea of the highest and
best use for the land….
Never mind that 125 neighbors support retail
on the site…...
Never mind that a utility station is the
lowest possible and most ridiculous use of this planned retail
site…...
Never mind that a development on the site
will bring in tax revenue for decades to come..
Never mind he was caught "with his pants down" violating his own site plan. Isn’t that like passing gas in your own wetsuit while holding your nose?
So where are we now on this misguided, screwed up project?
Frank Gray is apparently instructing staff that the retail site portion shall be used for an outdoor stage?What?? Who does this guy think he is? Why is he (and Dolan) going against the councils vote and spending taxpayer’s money without council approval or public input?
He will be pretending it is just a temporary use but that is not his true plan. He wants to kill the proper intended use as a retail area as designated by the council just for a power play to stroke his massive ego, his and Jan Dolan’s heavy handed retribution against Richard Funke for demanding fair play, with all of this tomfoolery being at the unsuspecting taxpayer’s expense.
Do we have another extremely costly Hualapai deal going on here???
This guy, as the city’s top land planner and new zoning administrator should be stopped dead in his tracks, if not fired!!! Have you noticed that his decisions are not consistent in many cases which are similar in use and location? You all might want to review what he has approved and his rationale, if that’s what you want to call it, for his decisions.
Yes! We need some major changes in city management before the city is ruined by incompetence, and well past repair, even with the spending of any reasonable amount of taxpayer dollars for that purpose.
(or, as the sinister slight of hand begins)
~Tease #1
This week the Motor Mile car dealers announced that they would "forego" their annual $300,000 taxpayer subsidy for marketing. Their announced reason for doing this is that "the subsidy worked and so they no longer need it."
What’s really going on here?
The truth behind this action is so simple it’s stupid and too transparent: the car dealers are letting their supporters on the council who are up for re-election next year (Manross, Drake and McCullagh) off the hook so that they do not have to vote to approve this unpopular piece of corporate welfare just before they face the voters in the Fall of 2008!
A sideline to that would be; why would a car dealer who is leaving Motor Mile want to further alienate potential Scottsdale customers by taking the taxpayers money, then moving to Mesa or wherever else they will eventually move (which many will according to some)?
~Tease #2
The second example of the current Council majority pretending to care what the residents think as they get ready to ask for re-election is light rail. Suddenly City Hall has decided that Scottsdale will not join a multi-city study of potential light rail expansion.
Our formerly light-rail-loving Mayor (who is miffed that Mayors Gordon and Hallman both have their own little choo-choo’s to play with while she has none!) suddenly wants to move "carefully" before we put light rail in Scottsdale.
Bull Crap!! She doesn’t say "won’t", she says "before we put light rail in Scottsdale", which in our minds means that it’s coming Hell or high water if she and Dolan have anything to do with it.
You also see the notoriously anti-resident, pro big money business Scottsdale Area Chamber hoping to fool you by promoting "modern streetcars," which is still light, rail just by another name.
~Tease #3
The current administration is "suddenly" pretending to be concerned about the harmful effects of big increases in height and density. Throughout her tenure running City Hall (hopefully short lived), our City Manager Jan Dolan has encouraged developers to make bigger profits while making Scottsdale’s Downtown higher, denser, and very stinky (as well as a place to stagger drunkenly after 6 in the evening).
Recently, however, Jan Dolan and her bosom buddy and ally the Mayor expressed "concern" to residents of some of the surrounding neighborhoods about the possible negative effects of the upcoming Starwood ("we never met a promise we won’t break") and OrchidTree projects.
This is a first (but watch out!).
We wonder what Susan Bitter-Smith and attorney John Berry, the hired guns for the aforementioned project owners and developers think about this apparent about face?
~The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
The good is that the current Council majority and the local establishment know that their support for subsidies, light rail, as well as height and density increases are very unpopular with the voters.
The bad is that their sudden concern about these "evils" is only temporary at best (subject to how they fare in the ’08 elections).
The Ugly is if this gruesome, spend-thrift bunch of YaHoo's gets re-elected in 2008, subsidies, light rail, and height with density increases as well as huge budget deficits will suddenly be back bigger than ever with the taxpayers, not the profit and greed driven developers, paying the bill.
~Don’t Be Fooled!
The current administration and the local establishment (which benefits from all of this bad stuff) will be working hard and spending tons of money (derived from the profits of height/density projects) to get the current Council majority re-elected.
~Save Scottsdale from Financial Ruin!
If you want to save Scottsdale from runaway growth, massive overspending, and a giant decrease in our quality of life, then you must work even harder than they will to elect resident-friendly and action oriented candidates who believe in an open, honest government, with a true and realistic vision for the future of the entire city to the City Council in 2008.
~ Code Enforcement Out of Step
The article below was published on the MSN website and struck home with what's happening in Scottsdale today.
Code Enforcement, prior to Malcolm Hankins being hired as the Field Manager, used to personally contact residents that had code violations to see if there was a reason, and if there was, explained the number of options offered by the city which the homeowner could avail themselves including others who would help the elderly and infirm get things in order.
Not today.
The Code Enforcement officers, per Malcolm Hankins, now just write down the address including the supposed violation and send out a letter. How impersonal for a city which used to pride itself on personal communication and cooperation with it's residents.
When you have an insensitive department which doesn't take personal problems into account, you have a serious and escalating problem which will cause a serious rebellion by those same residents as well as the Enforcement officers who's hands are tied by the ridiculous process now in place.
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~Dealing with an eyesore next door
In a buyer's market, curb appeal -- yours and the neighborhood's -- becomes even more important.
By Rachel Koning Beals, MarketWatch
Fresh paint, a new front door and colorful landscaping often are sure-fire ways to tease potential buyers over the threshold of a home for sale. But in some cases, no matter how perfect your pansies, nothing can draw their gaze past the tired-looking two-story buried in weeds next door.
More than 60% of 900 people surveyed by contractor-referral site ServiceMagic.com said they have or have had neighbors who make the street look bad by not taking care of the outside of their homes (21% admitted they were the culprit). Common problems: tall weeds and grass, imposing trees or a dying lawn; piled-up junk, particularly old cars; and peeling paint or a visible exterior defect, such as a broken window.
Sloppy properties aren't exclusive to older dwellings in established or up-and-coming neighborhoods. Bad habits are on display in new developments too, say real-estate experts.
Neighborhood eyesores aren't a new or uncommon problem. But curb appeal, yours and the neighborhood's, takes on greater significance in a nationwide buyer's market. For buyers, eyesores may present yet one more negotiating advantage. Remember, appraisals factor in the condition of nearby properties.
Michael Lee, a realty broker for 30 years in the San Francisco Bay Area and author of "Black Belt Negotiating," said sellers near eyesores "don't have to have a fire sale, but do need to put their listing at a price that attracts plenty of traffic . . . or risk having a home that just sits on the market."
"That is death," he said. "It becomes the tainted house."
The National Association of Realtors says an eyesore can shave about 10% off the value of a nearby listing. Market-by-market differences affect that percentage, real-estate experts say, as does the situation -- an overgrown lawn across the street is better than a boarded-up property right next door.
"If there are or were other similar eyesores in the area but the market is heading up, it's likely that the home will get fixed up or torn down sooner than later," said Bob Golden, a 20-year Atlanta agent with Re/Max. "If it's the only house in the area that looks bad, it can have a greater impact on the resale of neighboring homes."
Size up the situation
Approaching a neighbor can be uncomfortable to say the least. In the ServiceMagic survey, 75% of respondents said they'd made no direct contact with their neighbors about the issue; 18% said they confronted their neighbor, it created tension and the house still looked bad; 4% said their talk produced a satisfactory outcome all the way around and another 4% said the problem was fixed but it created lingering tension.
Neglected properties likely belong to one of two types of people: those physically or financially unable to keep up with the work and those who purposely buck social norms, said Tara-Nicholle Nelson, an Oakland, Calif., broker, author and creator of female-focused resource site Rethinkrealestate.com.
Knowing what you're dealing with is the key.
"In 'Black Belt' we talk about 'spying' on your opponent, true in martial arts and in any negotiation situation," said Lee. In some cases, the homeowner may have just fallen behind after taking on new responsibilities -- for example, a new job -- or facing unexpected health issues. Bringing your concern to their attention may do the trick. Stress that keeping up the condition of the neighborhood helps the value of all properties. Think: What's in it for us, not what's in it for me.
A group effort may pay off. Some local branches of the National Association of Realtors have created funds to help older or incapacitated homeowners keep up their exteriors. Getting other neighbors to collectively rally behind your cause may bear more fruit and may come across as neighborhood improvement projects, not the ranting of a picky neighbor.
Absentee owners -- say, if the property is rented out -- may require plenty of correspondence, so don't wait until right before you put your home on the market. If the out-of-town party is agreeable to changes, it may make sense for you to offer to secure contractors or other necessary laborers.
Ask for more than you think you're going to get, said Lee. Your fallback position, then, is that you will take care of making the fixes, either paying for them or doing the work yourself.
Unexpected sweat equity to resolve someone else's problem may seem more hassle than help, but that first impression is everything these days. Consider this: Lee admitted he once took a pass on a $750,000 listing just because the sellers refused to repaint their dog-scratched front door.
Call in the authorities
If personal negotiation stalls, or if hostile neighbors become threatening, residents sometimes can lean on municipal laws, administered through the building department, health department or similar entity, to get neighbors to clean up their act, said Neil Garfinkel, a Manhattan real-estate attorney with Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson.
Some areas levy fines for keeping around piles of wood that attract animals, as one example. Municipal codes can make for interesting, if dense, reading. Nelson said that her home city of Oakland includes an anti-rooster ordinance on its books.
Asked about bringing in the authorities, some 20% in the ServiceMagic survey said they "snitched" on their neighbors, another 20% said they intended to bring in the authorities but hadn't yet, and 14% said someone else in the neighborhood beat them to it. The remainder said they just put up with the nearby eyesore.
Getting results can be frustrating. The government is most likely to act only when a property's condition risks public health. The process of resolving a complaint can be long and time-consuming, real-estate experts say.
Eye of the beholder
Kina Lane, principal in Sunshine Development Partners, which buys and sells property in Chicago, Wilmington, Del., and her own neighborhood of New York's Harlem, stressed that eyesores are subjective. Real estate, like any investment, carries risk and reward. Proximity to eyesores may present a buying opportunity to some and keep others from even getting out of the car.
Some buyers, like Lane, see a mix of fixer-uppers and ongoing projects as a fruitful challenge; others don't want daily construction noise over several months or years. Urban house-hunters might be more tolerant of a mix of building styles and conditions than suburban or rural buyers, she said.
Eyesores aren't restricted to homes, Lane said. The mix of nearby commercial properties may not fit everyone's sensibilities -- a liquor store at the end of the block, for instance. Other buyers may enjoy the proximity of retail stores.
Empty industrial or retail buildings can have a negative impact as well. A potential buyer is left wondering if an area is on the rise or on the decline. A seller setting a listing price must keep the entire feel of the neighborhood in mind, Lane said.
Sometimes the house down the street is in good condition but its purple facade and lawn sculptures don't speak to everyone's taste. Whether homes need to conform by city ordinance to a general architectural feel varies by area, so check the rules.
In this case, Lee said, expand beyond conventional marketing venues to go after potential buyers who would welcome living in an eclectic neighborhood. Post your listing in galleries and restaurants, in independent newspapers and on ad Web sites such as Craigslist.
Develop a buyer profile, Lee said, and then go after that buyer.
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The above article hits the nail firmly and directly on the head and shows how far out of touch and ineffective the Scottsdale Code Enforcement department has become under Hankins supposed leadership.
It also graphically shows how the downfall of the city Code Enforcement department responsible for maintaining and enforcing the city codes can very adversely affect the values of all city properties.
This probably plays well with developers because it makes assemblage much easier and cheaper for them, but it's very bad for the resident who has worked hard to keep up and/or even upgrade his property while the city allows surrounding properties and entire neighborhoods to become blighted and thereby reducing in value more and more on a regular basis.
A few years ago, a number of residents met with a couple of council members and city staff including the city manager Jan Dolan and Raun Keagy. We came to the common conclusion that a neighborhood "sweep" including personal contact to weed out the serious offenders and those needing help on a monthly or every six weeks basis could be very productive and would eliminate many problems.
When neighborhood "sweeps" were conducted, those property owners cited complied by fixing the violation and their neighbors than saw the need for them to take care of their property also to avoid being cited and thereby making the neighborhood much more attractive, desirable and most importantly, more valuable. Those who didn't comply were cited again and fined until they came into compliance. Peer pressure was quite evident.
Under Hankins, the city auditor found many violations by the department including the failure to collect fines and the failure to follow up on citations among many other problems.
We would hope that under Raun Keagy, things will change back to the process the citizens and staff agreed upon, pre-Hankins, years ago.
The only fly, and possibly a very big one in this ointment will be Dolan sticking her nose into the process and bring in yet another outside person to replace Register who screws up the mess even more than Judy Register did.
Raun Keagy just got a huge raise. Let's see if he can pull this department out of the mud of confusion and failure and help the residents bring their neighborhood back up to what they were pre Hankins.
~ As the Infrastructure Crumbles..............
The 40 to 60 year old sidewalk and street infrastructure within the city limits, especially in the southern portion of the city, is deteriorating at an alarming rate while the city manager and city transportation director are fiddling around spending the money designated for those repairs or replacement, on "traffic calming devices", "roundabout's", "neighborhood entry islands", and other forms of unnecessary "street furniture".
Here are some prime examples of the unsightly deterioration:
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These are YOUR city streets and sidewalks ladies and gentlemen and these pictures come from only ONE street on ONE block in ONE neighborhood. Really makes you want to know what the rest of the city looks like doesn't it?
....And here is the city's sorry and asinine answer to repair the problem:
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Isn't this a wonderful way to solve a problem?
Why not use the money designated to replace the disintegrating portion of the sidewalk and street instead of the other nonsensical street furniture and other traffic calming stuff? This kind of repair looks great to a buyer of the home upon whose sidewalk this repair was done doesn't it? It certainly makes the city look no more than second rate at best as far as we are concerned.
This exemplifies the problems the taxpayers of this city will soon be paying dearly for after our city manager and others fail to solve our basic infrastructure problems before allowing the building of new venues that will stress the infrastructure even more.
We used to have center lines on minor collector streets as well as residential streets near schools and parks. No longer so under Dolan and O'Connor.
86th street used to have a center line because the street bends in two or three areas which can be very confusing on a rainy or dark night. The street also has two schools and a city park in a reasonably short distance from one another.
The transportation department now says we don't need the lines. Could it be they use that excuse because they spent the money on things we didn't need like "street furniture" and "neighborhood entry islands"?
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Another problem is the way they built the new "neighborhood entry islands" and how they were designated. They have signs which say or indicate a "Pedestrian Crossing" but there are ZERO crosswalks painted into the designated area where they should be painted!
The most grievous of errors and dangerous is the one in the left hand picture below which is at the pedestrian crossing from a park and less than 100 yards from an elementary school which has a signal light as well as a crossing guard! The one on the right is also near a major corner across the street from an apartment complex.
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The other issue is the new "traffic hump" directly in the middle of the Indian Bend Wash at Camelback east of Hayden. If you haven't seen it or experienced it, you need to go by and see it. Again, there are ZERO lines showing the pedestrian walk area.
If we're not mistaken, where ever there is a crosswalk without a traffic control signal, the crosswalk is to be designated and marked with a cross-hatch set of lines as well as the regular straight lines designating where the pedestrian is to walk.
I'm sorry, but I don't see the need for the hump for any reason. I think it was a lame excuse to see how it would work. Pedestrians from the new park could easily be routed over to the Hayden/Camelback crosswalk being that there is nothing completed yet with the park. As I remember the drawings, all walkways led to the Hayden/Camelback corner. What happened? Rather than stupidly spending tens of thousands of dollars on something as asinine as this Hump, why not repair/paint the current crossings that have ZERO markings??
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The city's lame brain reason (excuse) is that it was installed for "pedestrian use". What pedestrians? They don't cross there, they cross at either Hayden or 82nd Street because there is NOTHING for them at the location of the installation!
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Who approved it?
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Was there public input as well as an advisory telling of the installation?
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How much did it cost?
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Was it approved by Maricopa County Flood Control District?
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The Army Corps of Engineers?
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U.S. Department of Reclamation?
We seriously doubt it. But of course the city won't come clean on any of these questions.
For those of you that are interested and might have missed it......there is an Ironwood Village HOA Board Meeting on August 20th (6:30Pm at The Village at DC Ranch" Health Club). The only mention of it was in the letter we received last month.
It is not listed on the IV Website Calendar nor was a card sent out as normal.
This is An important Issue that should be of concern to all IV Residents. It is the proposal by Scottsdale Airport to increase the maximum allowable weight of planes coming into and leaving Scottsdale Airport from 75,000 pounds to 90,000 pounds which would create an opening for the much larger and noisier Gulfstream jets that carries a much heavier load.
This will add to the air traffic and especially add to the noise levels of these jets directly over Ironwood Village. This will open this airport for 'transcontinental" jets. They initially say that this is for the "Super Bowl" however once this is put in place.....it will not be removed and will remain which is very typical of the current administration.
The Ironwood Village HOA should take a stand and band with other HOA's in the area as well as other interested Scottsdale Residents to work towards this Airport continuing to be a good "neighbor" and not allowing increasingly larger aircraft to destroy more of the quietness of our area.
There is a perfectly good airport at Sky Harbor and at Deer Valley that are much better designed and affect far fewer "on the ground" personnel than Scottsdale Airport. Scottsdale is a "land-locked" airport and should work to confine their operations to that fact.
This is an important issue!
An involved IV HOA resident
Scottsdale
Subject: RE: SCOTTSDALE AIRPORT - BIGGER-NOISIER JETS MAY BE COMING TO SUPERBOWL
It may surprise you to learn that, not only did I not dream this idea up, I may not support it. The net effect of allowing larger jets into Scottsdale Airport has been to chase general aviation away from the airport, a result that I do not support.
Councilman Bob Littlefield
~The "West's Most Western Town"
I thought it was interesting to find the following pictures in our mail box this week along with some history. Can you identify from what area of the state they came?
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We're afraid the title gave the answer away. Yep Partner, they're living right here within the city limits of Scottsdale on a private ranch of about 160 acres. They live there happily in complete contentment and harmony with coyotes, peccaries (also known by its Spanish name, javelina or pecarí), deer, jackrabbits, cotton tails, rattlesnakes, tarantulas, scorpions, and a plethora of desert flora and fauna in what we know as the wonderfully amazing and absolutely stunning Sonoran Desert.
Many visitors to Scottsdale are very excited to venture out to see if they can find where the horses are grazing on any given day, many visiting the horses daily. The owner tries very hard to keep the fences up and tight but members of the public continually cut the fences to "set the horses free" which does cause consternation among some natives and a lot of work for the owner.
Those in the "Fast Lane" of booze, night life, and high rise condos may not appreciate what Scottsdale offers as far as real wild life is concerned, but those of us who have been here and appreciate the finer things of life feel that Scottsdale is still "The West's Most Western Town" because of these wonders some don't know of or care about.
In what other city limits within the United States will you find horses, cattle, and many other animals living freely and unconcerned about the "fast lane" while being totally appreciated by the vast majority of local residents.
Now. How can anyone say we're NOT "The West's Most Western Town"?
~Letters to the Editor ~
letters@scottsdaleactivist.com
~ Response to Scottsdale Republic’s Peter Corbett
Hi Peter,
In what appeared at first blush to be a news story about growth and traffic at the Scottsdale Airpark, you opined as follows:
"Attracting lower-paid workers to the Airpark could be challenging if commute times get too long and comparable jobs are available elsewhere. An express bus from Surprise to the Airpark is a start. But more mass transit will be needed to get workers to their jobs, especially as carpool and other lanes are added to the Loop 101 over the the next decade."
So, in other words, instead of raising wages or providing vans or moving to south Scottsdale, employers should socialize part of their labor costs, thus distorting the true cost of doing business at the Airpark and thus receiving a hidden subsidy from taxpayers. Heck, while we're at it, maybe we should socialize their utility costs.
Regards,
Craig J. Cantoni
www.craigcantoni.com
I sent an email to the Scottsdale Activist to get the name and email address of the person who has been giving them and apparently the city council so much trouble by lying and making false accusations concerning the goings on in Scottsdale and activities by city activists. No name was attached to the emails apparently which means "whodoyouthinkyouare" doesn't have any real convictions or really believe what they write concerning people who work many hours for the good of the everyday citizens of Scottsdale. All "whodoyouthinkyouare" is looking for is publicity and their name in lights (print).
I am totally amazed and angered at the insulting and nasty letters by whom I only know as "whodoyouthinkyouare". Being an elderly resident myself, I found it interesting that whomever wrote the letters wasn't mentioned as one of those who helped the young at heart elderly lady move after being unceremoniously dumped from her home of over 20 years by a greedy developer because none of those who helped would write such unkind drivel.
These sorts of people who write this nonsense, if you want to call them that, are the scourge of the earth we all have to put up with until they move on or find themselves. I pray "whodoyouthinkyouare" finds peace and contentment in what they are doing.
As an old gray headed, wrinkled up widow-woman and a survivor of many similar battles, I suggest everyone else go about the business of Scottsdale understanding that "whodoyouthinkyouare" no longer exists as far as the citizens of Scottsdale, young and old, are concerned.
Don't waste your time on such a person, they only bring hurt and discomfort to themselves.
E Slocomb
Scottsdale
~ Living in the Land of Oz
by Michael Merrill
Heads up Ozites, I have to tell you that even I need to get out of Dodge for a bit and the wife and I are heading for Pine Top at the end of month for our annual summer getaway, as if you do not get out of Oz for a brief period of time, your head could explode.
Result; you are going to have to live without Oz in one edition of the Scottsdale Activist, sorry.
Maybe I can talk Nancy Cantor into writing the column for me that week as I believe she can follow the plot line very well?
~Larry Manross Puts His Fishnet Stockings Away!
Well, I guess we will miss out in the run up to the election to see Larry in drag trying to get back the Gay votes of Scottsdale for his wife. Now, that is going to be something I am going to miss being able to see and report on. This is a huge let down for me.
I am sure that Ozites have already heard that the GLBT are satisfied frogs since they spoke with none other than "Mary, what is a Pink Taco and no you cannot dance on my lap Manross."
The General of Good Intentions (Don Logan), and Rick "if only the past president would go away," Kidder all met this week, and the GLBT must be a dumber group of people than I would have thought.
To think that because of this meeting two things will happen, and all will be well is the biggest load of Umpa Lumpa turd’s I have ever heard of. One is the load of garbage that even if the city did adopt an ordinance for this issue, you are entrusting the "city government of Oz" to enforce it.
Now, lets remember that the city is notorious for not only breaking their own ordinances, but has a history, and a very good one, of not following their own policies or agreements that have been made with public input. Second is that any council member who voted for such an ordinance would be committing discrimination against the rest of the general public by granting special rights and privileges to one group of the public that the rest do not have the benefit of.
I mean really, they already have those rights of protection. If they get assaulted they follow the same process the rest of the public follows by way of the police department and existing laws.
Let’s also remember that we can also label these types of deplorable assaults as "hate crimes". If you want to be treated normally, than follow the same procedures the "normal" people have to follow.
If you are effectively a woman in your mind, which is fine by me, and wear a skirt but still have an "Oscar Mayer" you need to take a seat in the girl’s rest room out of respect for those who are offended and embarrassed if you raise your skirt to urinate at the urinal in the boy’s room. It’s not right or at all fair for you to make a privately owned business provide you with a special bathroom because you feel picked upon. Buck up, you live in the wild, wild west, remember? Isn’t it rather hypocritical to act and dress as a woman but still demand to use the boy’s restroom to relieve yourself just because you still have an "Oscar Mayer"?
Like I said, it appears, and I hope I am wrong, the GLBT is a dumber group of folks than the ones they got to speak with that represent the community and when I first heard the term "GLBT" I thought Oz came up with a new sandwich, much like we had to explain the slang for "Pink Taco" to our own Mayor.
For any Council member to grant an ordinance passage would be plain wrong and well remembered as folks don’t sit well with discriminating against the rest of us who live here.
Now, they are happy. What a bunch of yucks they are, and now I will never see Larry in Fishnets and Heels!
Well here is a pisser that has taken me some time to figure out and I think I have a pretty good bead on it now. Thanks, to the GLBT issue it appears that we now have a person by the name of Mr. Greco making problems for an old Oz institution by the name of the Charros of Oz.
A group of "men" that has been around for 46 years doing many good things for the charities and Scottsdale Unified School District, as well as the Boys and Girls Club of Oz. Where does the money come from you ask? Through donations for one, but largely from running Scottsdale Stadium and managing the spring training of the San Francisco Giants.
Could you imagine what would happen if we let the Wizard of Oz handle this time of year?
So, what is Mr. Greco’s problem with the Charros? They do not have any women in the group which is defined as "the group of gentlemen." They have not had any women clamoring to get in, nor should they be accepted.
I cannot be a Girl Scout or a member of the League Women of Voters.
I had to think for a few days as the name Greco struck me as familiar, and not in a good way. Then it dawned on me how the whole issue is linked together.
If this is the same Greco I believe it is, than he is the same Greco who was ticked off about the old Coronado Golf issue when the City wanted to make it a San Francisco Giants spring training facility.
This is the same person who went after the Charros back then, and who, along with another resident of the area around the golf course, began be-moaning the Charros to bolster their position.
Fact is, I have never understood how those two managed to get all their neighbors to not see all of the benefits putting the training camp there, on a run down golf course, that no-one ever really goes to because it’s standards have never been kept up, and even to this day, the owner has never followed through on the plans that he told the City he had for the property.
They scared all their neighbors into thinking that their property values would plummet. Now that we have found a site, people want to build high end condos along the area bordering the new fields. Their properties would have been shielded from the park area by the original design proposal. The training site would have shielded them from people getting to close to their property.
Again, we see another bunch of yucks who did not have a clue as to the benefits they could have had if they allowed the facility to happen.
Back to the point. Now that some of us remember who Mr. Greco was back then, we would have to seriously consider that he is still working to get his way with the Charros.
Advice to the supposed leaders of Oz would be to REJECT any changing of the City contract with the Charros or adding in other types of language to other contracts the City has at the advice of "staff," or Mr. Greco, unless he is going to start claiming he is really a woman and wants to use the women’s restroom now.
Lets not screw up another City institution of many years for the clamoring of a person seeking revenge on the Charros in his own misguided (and now made public) motives.
I found it funny to read in Shouts and Spouts last week someone was seeking the definition of an Umpa Lumpa Turd.
Honestly, I was hoping no one would ever ask for my version of the definition because, since I am politically incorrect, I am sure my response would offend some.
Living in the Land of Oz, as I have, it is required mental health to take a stroll on the bookshelf and visit other communities. While I was out on one of my strolls I ran into Willy Wonka one day, and we had a conversation about how we in Oz have never been able to find a "poo" that we could use to show an Oz blunder, because the stench was just too horrible for residents to take in (to many blunders and too much stench). The residents preferred to ignore and shy away from acknowledging these issues as incorrect.
Willy gave me the solution to our problem that sort of reminds me of the Waterfront issue, when he told me that he could export to us some of his workers (umpa lumpas) waste product for us to use as spread.
I asked Willy how this could help the problem and he told me that since Umpa Lumpa’s only eat chocolate there is no smell and when you have to rub it in someone’s face, it is not as unpleasant as it could have been.
The jury is still out on this experiment, because anything you have to spread in Oz seems to take on a stench of its own.
Hope that helps define the issue and I did it as nicely as I could.
~ $1000 rebate for Ozites!
I read the other day that those car dealers over there on the defunct Motor Mile have decided to not use the other $900,000.00 of taxpayer money to help promote their advertising costs.
So, what really happened here? Did the City and the dealers, and lawyers have a sit down to determine if the new state law about subsidies pertained to their little act of wasteful spending of public money (we are paying for the richest automotive dealers in the nation advertising costs)?
Could it be, that the increase in revenue as
reported in the news, bordered so much on "minimal" it was not
working and, in reality, it is setting in that they may not make
it and plan on departing gracefully?
Could it be that the departments most
interested in this issue and how it plays out could be the Oz
Economic Development Department and, possibly, the General of Oz
Land Uses?
Could it be that they might be planning on letting them leave after seeing how prime that real-estate actually is for more high-end condos or, as I call it, "planning for light rail"?
I mean really! Here we are talking about prime property against the back drop of the Papago Buttes and the Zoo area with all the paths and the City is drooling to "redevelop" the area with a new PUD zoning where heights and massive density adjustments can be made for anything other than the Wicked Witches plans for the supposed concerns of work force housing which she says we need for transit reasons.
As for "advanced planning in Oz" some of us know exactly what the South and Downtown are in store for and if you think the Wizard does not have a plan within other City departments, then you are not paying attention.
I say the City should give that "Motor Mile" money to residents in $1000.00 checks they can use at the car dealerships on Motor Mile for new cars.
Okay, after thinking about a comment from another Scottsdale group known for their participation in transportation issues, about the process to be followed when it comes to "traffic calming projects" (as opposed to "entry island projects") I decided to give it one last fling to find out what happened. I am asking the Land of Oz for copies of the documentation that shows what process was followed.
Funny thing is that since I brought this issue up, along with the flow chart and definitions of traffic calming projects, the City has just left the issue to die in the black hole of Oz.
Other than Sir Tony, who initially asked some questions which garnered a response that shows there was no process followed, even he has been silent on the issue and the questions that were asked. Of course, we found out that Beanie Boy (Lane) has never looked into the issue and I am sure it is beyond his expectations to have to deal with it as a supposed leader of Oz making sure that the City follows the process they require of residents.
Maybe if we looked at how much it costs to install this stuff and laid it out in beans for him, he could become concerned.
Problem solved Beanie Boy; we are being sued for 2 million dollars for unplanned and unapproved change orders (contract and procurement law violations) that never went through the process for "street furniture." So, can you count that many beans?
While I bet that staff can come up with the agendas I asked for, since both the Oz City Council and the Oz Transportation Commission, had to approve this as well, the problem hinges on the rest of the process.
Since, I was also not able to find those items on any agenda of either group, we may have an even bigger problem that the Oz government should have to answer. Don’t hold your breath on the Oz Government ever having to answer any questions. Don’t expect to see the supposed leaders of Oz take exception to this continual problem of Transportation of Oz doing whatever the hell they please in your communities because they are also just as guilty of ignoring of policies, public input, and Oz ordinances.
Again, I will bet we see the fine meanderings of verbiage come forward that none of us can ever believe, but the council and commissions of Oz lap up like a cold bowl of water on a hot summer’s day.
I mean Vibe. I copied this from the Oz Republic the other day because it is about time we started questioning some of the rhetoric that keeps coming from the Editorial pages of the City’s right arm of disinformation to the general public.
I think that since the Republic of Oz has lost any chance at being a credible paper for information since their "investigative" reporter seems to be Lesley Wright and the entire issue of "investigative" journalism seems to be non-existent, it makes you wonder how and where editors like Robert Leger come up with their information.
From city documents, maybe, as well as from, maybe, the usually out of touch reports in the news when they appear in their papers?
I found this one to be one of the more hilarious comments I had seen in some time.
Downtown Vibe: Downtown is an exciting place, largely because the city got out of the way and let entrepreneurs lead. Business owners and the council took risks, which are paying off. The nightclub scene east of Scottsdale Road is attracting young, well-heeled visitors. Condos and new restaurants increase the customer base for the boutiques and art galleries around Fifth Avenue and Marshall Way. A palpable electricity flows through downtown. Now we have community and Council members who see downtown as too successful. They want to stop the sort of entrepreneurial creativity that turned the area around. That would be a mistake. The market is smarter than government. The Council should continue to encourage risk-taking.
Okay, now I mean really, it is apparent that the editor is clueless in so many areas it is not even funny. What "entrepreneurs" are they talking about, or is this the nice new word for developers and developer greed? What risk did the Council ever take other than removing the blight designation that they were responsible for placing on the area from the beginning? What business owners took risks?
Recently, we had the Flatulating Butthead of Oz make comments that a business owner for over 30 years in Downtown who was seeking to redevelop his property was not entitled to the abandonment of an alley because he did not take the same risk that developers north of his property have taken. It makes you wonder if the Flatulating Butthead and Mr. Leger spend too much time stroking their own egos and opinions.
Maybe they are talking about the Bean Counter Lane who approved a dismal project called the Condos on Earl that broke so many standards of development that even Betty Drake objected. Or maybe they are talking about our friend Fredrick R. Unger who has been part of the reason some areas got blighted?
How are things paying off? I only hear the from those who live here full and part-time of how they hate what the City is doing to Downtown and how can it be paying off since the revenue translations that never appeared in their paper shows that there has been no improvement in revenues to speak of since all of this began?
I guess the revenue that is coming out of the taxpayer’s wallets is what they are talking about since we are the ones paying for all the infrastructure and service costs that run into the millions because the developers sure as hell are not paying for any of this stuff.
They just get to rezone against the existing codes and add more problems that our Council majority is too stupid to see.
While the market may be smarter than government, and the residents are surely smarter than government, the government better remember who puts them in place.
We can take their butts out just as quickly if they continue in this type of "risk-taking" that is going to blow up in their faces which the taxpayers will have to take care of.
Michael Merrill
F8713@aol.com
"Tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard."
-- George Washington (Farewell Address, 19 September 1796)
"It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers! In fact, I discovered by reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses plainly saw all my strategic defects from the start, yet failed to inform me until it was too late. Accordingly, I'm readily willing to yield my command to these obviously superior intellects, and I'll, in turn, do my best for the Cause by writing editorials - after the fact."
-Robert E. Lee, 1863
~Shout and Spout ~
~Could you explain to me please, why it requires a City Council vote to accept a grant or $120,000 for crime lab improvements, but it only requires the Mayor's signature to SPEND millions for a bogus lease on a water treatment facility?
~ What has happened to the Manross/Jackson talks about the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction at West World? It sure has gotten quiet of late hasn't it? Makes you wonder what they're up to.
~ Don't you find it interesting that Mary Katherine Manross has already gone into "Election Mode"? I think she's running scared just as she should and feels she needs a head start. Everyone needs to measure carefully everything she says and writes now versus what she has said in the past. You'll find some huge discrepancies.
~If Jan Dolan says that her personal review is last weeks news, "so yesterday", why did the council spend $50,000 to protect it? I'll bet the entire thing won't ever be open to the public, and so goes the secret society within the walls of the Ivory Tower called Scottsdale city hall.
~ I want to thank Nancy Cantor for all the work she, two councilmen and the activists did to help the elderly woman who was forced to move. It is heartwarming as well as very telling as to who the real hero's of the city are and it certainly isn't those scoundrels and do-gooders who never showed up to help.
~ The "Stink" downtown comes directly from deep within the bowels of city hall as the Activist has so eloquently stated on a number of occasions..........
~ "Three things are true in Scottsdale" is right on the money. Too bad those incumbents running for re-election don't understand and will probably continue to make seriously flawed decisions based on the demands of Dolan, Manross, and their greedy minions. Puppets at best don't you think?
~ Mary Manross is such a twit. She bends like a twig in a wind, especially around election time. All of a sudden she's everyone's friend. What a bunch of crap. She's the biggest backstabber the city has.
~ I too would like to know where the money has gone. I see so many things wrong and not being repaired yet there is all kinds on new stuff we don't need popping up. What gives here? Maybe the next election will straighten out the problem.
~ As we noted in last weeks Activist, the website address for the North Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce is
http://www.northscottsdalechamber.org/~ How are Dolan, Manross and Robberson going to get out of the pickle they find themselves in concerning the Hualapai land lease? No matter how you look at it, the entire process was either illegal or unethical and needs to be prosecuted as such one way or the other.
~ I'm so glad to see that Nan Nesvig is still heavily involved in community activities. She is the perfect person to replace any one of the three incumbents up for election and we'll make sure she does.
~We've been watching this guy Bramoweth (?) and wonder what he's up to. He seems to bend with the breeze as far as his published and spoken comments are concerned. Isn't he afraid it's all going to come back and bite him right in his backside?
~ Can we draft James Derouin to run for the position of Mayor of Scottsdale? What a great mayor he will make.
~ Loved the Manross/Dolan/Ecton vision for Scottsdale, kind of tells it like it is all in one picture doesn't it? God help us if Manross and company are re-elected. All four, Manross, Lane, Drake, and McCullagh need to go. We need new blood to make Ecton impudent and give Littlefield and Nelssen some support. They seem to be the only one's within the current council who hear the residents and are involved within the community
~ Thank you Nancy Cantor. You are God's gift to Scottsdale as are the councilmen and activists who gave of their precious time to help you at OrchidTree. We won't soon forget who did what and especially who didn't!
~ Can you find out if Mary Manross and her family have been using Craig Jackson's condo in San Diego as rumored? Editors note: We have been researching that constant rumor and have as yet to find anything solid on which to base the claim, but we're still looking through reams of records. Manross of course would deny everything no matter the case.
~ Dolan says she's not leaving. What a crock of crap. She's leaving one way or the other. When she leaves, we'll take back our city and tell the staff when, where and what we want for a change instead of them telling us.
~ Where have Craig Cantoni's articles disappeared to? I miss them. Some make me laugh, some upset me, and some make me think and I like that a lot.
~Any business who joins the Kidder/Korte Chamber is joining a loser organization. They couldn't care less about the residents. All they care about is the amount of money they can rake in and the power they can wield.
~ Loved Cantor's Guest Editorial on blight, too bad it'll go right over the heads of the unconscious, uneducated, but highly intimidated council majority.
~ Which Home is the "Greenest"?
For those of you following the way "green" is being incorporated into the homes of politicians:
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House #1 A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural
gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all
heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than
the average American household does in a year. The average monthly bill
for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. In natural
gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national
average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern
or Midwestern "snow belt" area. It's in the South.
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House #2 was designed by an architecture professor at a leading national
university. This house incorporates every "green" feature current home
construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms)
and is nestled on a high prairie in the American Southwest. A central
closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water
through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67
degrees F) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer.
The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it
consumes one-quarter the electricity required for a conventional
heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and
funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern.
Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground
purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then
irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and
shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the
surrounding rural landscape.
Who do these homes belong to? Scroll down......................
HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee; it is just one of many abodes of the "environmentalist" Al Gore.
HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas; it is the residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.
Ah, maybe THIS is an "inconvenient truth" Al Gore doesn’t want to discuss.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
By Craig J. Cantoni
August 15, 2007
A transvestite walks into a bar, is served a drink, and then goes into the women’s restroom to hang out (no pun intended), frightening the female patrons.
No, this is not the beginning of a joke. The incident actually happened in my hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona.
To finish the true story, the bar owner asks the transvestite to leave the premises, not for being a transvestite, but for being inconsiderate of other patrons.
All hell breaks out afterwards. Being an employee of the city and well trained in his (her?) "rights," the transvestite gets into a tizzy and threatens to sue over being asked to leave the bar, which, contrary to conventional wisdom, is private property and not a public facility. The local media takes hold of the story and spins it in the usual direction: to the left. Then the county attorney grandstands and says he will decide if the bar owner should be prosecuted. And a gay-rights group meets with the mayor about the need for Scottsdale to be friendlier towards gays, lesbians and transvestites.
At the same time that the transvestite was hanging out in the women’s restroom, the City of Scottsdale was stealing money from some citizens and giving it to other citizens in numerous ways. To take one example, the city was actually using public money to subsidize the advertising of local auto dealers.
Tellingly, the reaction of the press, politicians and the public to the city’s larceny has been far different than their reaction to the transvestite’s trivial travails. The reaction has been mostly silence. For some inexplicable reason, the transvestite’s silliness is considered a serious issue, but a truly serious issue of an abuse of government power is treated like a frivolous one.
It’s the same story across the land. Millions of Americans are being robbed of billions of dollars everyday by municipal, state and federal governments on behalf of other Americans and organized theft rings (a k a special interests). At the federal level alone, over half of the national government’s spending is theft. It is money that is taken from some Americans and given to other Americans in the form of handouts, entitlements and subsidies instead of being spent on the true general welfare. Yet, strangely, the victims aren’t screaming about their rights, rights groups aren’t coming to their defense, the media aren’t running sympathetic stories, and county prosecutors aren’t grandstanding and threatening the robbers with prosecution.
Worse, whether it’s Fox News, network news, PBS, your local TV news, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, your local newspaper, talk radio, or other media, the victims of government theft get virtually no coverage while the perpetrators get a lot of sympathetic coverage.
Examples abound. Watch the news and you’ll eventually see a farmer complaining that his crop subsidy is too low, a senior complaining that his subsidized medicine is too expensive, a college student complaining that her subsidized tuition is too high, and thousands of other examples. But you won’t see a demonstrator standing in front of the farmer’s farm with a sign saying that the farmer is a thief. You won’t see a teenager being interviewed about the unfairness of being stuck with $70 trillion in unfunded liabilities for the Social Security and Medicare of current retirees. And you won’t see a reporter asking a college student why she thinks that a working stiff who doesn’t attend college should be forced to subsidize her education so that she can earn much more than him.
Even conservative think tanks don’t raise moral, ethical and philosophical questions about such theft. Instead, they engage in tortured debates about what form the theft should take and how much there should be. They jabber about such esoteric economic subjects as utility, efficacy, efficiency, economic deadweight, and how the Austrian school of economics contrasts with the Keynesian school. They blabber about flat taxes, consumption taxes, marginal taxes, tuition vouchers, charter schools, health savings accounts, the Laffer curve, and other policy-wonk stuff. But they don’t address the most important issue--namely, why some schlemiel should have his money taken for someone else’s benefit.
If the policy wonks were in law enforcement, they’d say that robbery is okay as long as the robber uses a knife instead of a gun and doesn’t take all of the victim’s money.
What’s the reason for the silence about the true nature of theft by government? Some might answer that the theft is so widespread and commonplace that it is not news. Others might mention the problem of concentrated benefits and diffused costs--that is, the difficulty in getting the public riled up when each theft, when taken individually, is relatively small to the victim but results in huge amounts for the thief. Still others might say that so many Americans are on the take that it is futile to say anything.
None of those is the correct answer. The correct answer is that the nation has reached the end of political philosophy. It is no longer a matter of philosophical debate whether it is moral and ethical for someone to petition the government to beggar his neighbor. Nor is it a matter of debate whether the proper role of government is to protect property or confiscate it. The debate was over long ago. The nation has decided that it is moral and ethical to beggar your neighbor, and that the proper role of government is confiscation. As a result, the only thing left to debate is the degree and form of beggaring and confiscation.
I don’t know how we got to the end of political philosophy, but my guess is that the primary causes were the New Deal and the near-monopoly over K-12 education by the government and its handmaidens, the teachers’ unions.
In any event, the transvestite has taught me a valuable lesson. The only way I can draw attention to this issue is to put on a dress and distribute this article in women’s restrooms. See you later. I have to shave my legs now.
Mr. Cantoni is an author, columnist and founder of Honest Americans Against Legal Theft (www.haalt.org). He can be reached at
ccan2@aol.com.
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.
~ UPDATE!! A "Must See" for All Americans
Every American should check out all of these websites to learn more about what the American population is about to have to deal with.
This is NOT for Children.
I don't normally allow anything but Scottsdale information in the Scottsdale Activist but after receiving many emails about this and viewing it, I think that it's imperative that every adult at least look at what's offered here if for nothing more than their own education and to have everyone stop and think about the future of our country. Click on the link below,
If you don't have Adobe Flash, install it from the bottom of the page that comes up after you click on the link above. You should be able to view all available links within the main page.
The website below is of great interest as seen from a Lebanese point of view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8fa9yKQeTY
The website below gives some history of Terrorist attacks:
http://patriotfiles.org/civilizationcalls.htm
This website tell you what REALLY happened:
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened
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Prop13Arizona
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Executive Guidance Committee Sen. Ron Gould Sen. Jack Harper Rep. Russell Pearce Hon. David Smith Jeff Greenspan, Chairman Lynne Weaver, Vice Chairman
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 1, 2007, 12:00 PM MST |
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Prop 13 Style Property Tax Reform Coming To Arizona Prop 13 Arizona, a coalition of elected officials and citizen activists, has organized to bring California Prop 13 style reform to Arizona. Prop 13 Arizona brings together elected state officials, citizen activists, taxpayer, industry and other political interest groups to form the definitive statewide property tax reform coalition in Arizona. Over the next year, representatives of various stakeholder groups will be working together with elected officials and citizen activists to create comprehensive, transformational property tax reform bills and initiatives to include: · Eliminating classes of property · Resetting the property tax rate back to no more than 1%, the maximum allowed in the Arizona Constitution · Setting a 2% annual limit to valuation increases after a property is purchased · Rolling back current valuations to 2001 “Prop 13 Arizona: …comprehensive, transformational property tax reform... “ Prop 13 Arizona will: · Provide comprehensive reform for driving future economic growth and prosperity · Enable businesses and individuals to plan and budget their tax requirements · Attract new business to the state The work has already begun. New stakeholders join Prop 13 Arizona each week. Bills and initiatives are being drafted. The first initiative, C-01-2008, a portion of the reform language, has been filed with additional filings to follow. Stakeholders from around the state are providing their input in order that the bills and initiatives appeal to the widest segment of the population, amenable to business owners, industry and individuals. Look for more from Prop 13 Arizona in the coming weeks and months. |
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~ 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.
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Scottsdale Development Update
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Important City Meetings
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~City Public Document Search ~ ~ Website Contacts ~ ~ Shout & Spout ~ ~ Editor ~
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The Scottsdale Activist is published, and edited in Scottsdale AZ ~ 480-326-2475