Archive for the '9-A August 2007' Category
Surprise assistant city manager considered for
Florida job
.The Arizona RepublicSept. 21, 2007 02:00 PMSurprise Assistant City Manager Kathy Rice is a finalist for a city manager job in Bartow, Fla., she confirmed Friday.”Most of the time I like being an assistant,” she said. “Every now and then you like being the manager.”Rice has been employed in Surprise since 2004, overseeing eight city departments including police, economic development and public works.She is up against four others for the leadership position in Bartow, a city in central Florida with more than 16,500 residents, according to the U.S. Census. Her competition includes another city manager, two former county administrators and a former executive officer for the Seminole Tribe of Florida.Rice said she views the jobs as a step up, and noted that it would place her closer to family in Georgia. She also has many friends in the central Florida area. Reach the reporter at (602) 444-6912 or tony.lombardo@arizonarepublic.com.
Of interest taken from the, MINUTES OF THE STUDY SESSION/RETREAT OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF CHINO VALLEY
FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2007
8:30 A.M.
The Common Council of the Town of Chino Valley, Arizona met for a Study Session/Retreat in the Antelope Hills Golf Course Old Clubhouse, located at 1989 Clubhouse Drive, Prescott, Arizona, on Friday, August 10, 2007.
2) Opening Remarks. Town Manager Bill Pupo started off the meeting with a couple icebreakers.
3) Presentation and discussion regarding 5 Year budget and population forecasts. If the Town continued to grow at its current 10 percent, its population would be 93,027 in 2030. Impacts from population growth included population-based revenues taking up to seven years to reflect expenditures that were immediate; increased pressures for new capital outlay and higher levels of service; strain on road infrastructure, traffic circulation, sewer system capacity, and Town services; and balancing services to new residents with the revenues obtained from them.
· Under current conditions, in five years, revenues would not be sufficient to support operating expenditures, the fund balance would be in a negative position, and additional commitments would continue to increase the negative position.
· Steps to consider to improve the forecast included reviewing revenues and setting firm guidelines for cost recovery; reviewing programs and services for effectiveness and identifying cost saving strategies; identifying ways to slow down escalating personnel costs; and complying with financial policies regarding capital improvement funding, debt issuance, and fund balance.
August 10, 2007 - Study Session
Surprise donation goes to the dogs
Jared Hartung
Daily News-Sun
September 11, 2007 - 1:54PM
Surprise has taken a $10,000 step toward cleaning up their city — one dog at a time. That’s right, the city has donated $10,000 to the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control to wash the dirt off of impounded pooches.
This year alone, Surprise has sent 1,100 dogs to be impounded at the animal control offices. The $10,000 donation is in appreciation for the county’s services, said council member Gwyn Foro.
“They definitely need a lot of assistance down there,” she said. “They help our animal control officers out and we just want to do our part.”
Surprise has three animal control officers available, Foro said, but the size of the city stretches their coverage thin.
“We know darn well that the animals in Surprise being captured aren’t just from this area. They come from surrounding areas,” she said. “I am going to be writing letters to those cities that don’t contribute (to MCACC) urging them to do so.”
The proceeds will go to the Friends of Animal Care and Control, a nonprofit group that supports special programs for the county’s animal control office. Specifically, the Surprise funds will go toward the grooming of animals ready for adoption.
“I’ve made a couple of trips down there and they give medical care and a lot of money goes toward spaying and neutering,” Foro said. “But they need to improve the aesthetic appeal of these animals.
“If you went down to adopt a cocker spaniel and his hair was all matted and he smelled you probably wouldn’t adopt him,” she said. “You’d want a cute clean puppy.”
Surprise Police Chief Daniel Hughes and Foro will make the donation Friday.
The city did not arrive at the $10,000 amount in any particular way. Foro said that it was a nice round number and appeared to cover the necessity.
“In the grand scheme of things it may seem like a lot of money, but it’s really not,” she said. “They really need it.”
For information or to donate to the MCACC, call 602-506-PETS or visit www.pets.maricopa.gov or www.azfaccs.org.
Sherry, below are the current totals. These do not include today’s mail (not yet received) and any ballots dropped off at your site or at other polling sites throughout the county.
Looks like you are 38% right now and I would say that you will definitely break the 40% return rate… as of Sept.11, 07 7:30 a.m.
Reynaldo Valenzuela Jr.
Assistant Director of Elections
Maricopa County Elections Department
510 South 3rd Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona 85003
• Phn: 602-506-3096
• Cell: 602-526-1065
• Fax: 602-506-5112
Let’s hope Surprise voters will have the last laugh.
It’s almost too hot to be thinking about elections. But for the people in Surprise, I would like to think that Sept. 11 can not come fast enough.
I’m convinced this will be the most important election in the city’s history. I mean, when the city manager, Jim Rumpeltes, read a statement in June that talked about a dysfunctional city and said some council members ruled by “threats and coercion,” the antennae of all voters should have shot up.
City managers don’t normally say those things. It was a gutsy and courageous performance that gave the public a scary glimpse into the power politics practiced in Surprise. Two inquiries are underway to see if the politicians violated open meeting laws or city codes by their behavior. Wouldn’t it be good if these were completed before the election?
Lots of candidates are squaring off. That’s good for representative democracy. In most municipal elections few people are willing to challenge incumbents. It certainly helps that longtime mayor Joan Shafer is calling it quits, prompting six challengers to vie for the mayor’s office. The three council races also are contested. That’s the way it should be.
These races should pivot on City Council performance, but whether their shenanigans will prompt voters to turn out in droves and dump the incumbents, remains to be seen. I hope they do. I hope the voters are angry.
Their performance of the incumbents has been marked an unusual sense of entitlement that I have not seen in a career of covering politics. It’s been all about them – voting themselves higher salaries, not wanting any accountability on mileage reimbursement, retroactive pensions that’ll cost Surprise $291,000 all at once, increasing discretionary fund accounts without putting in place spending guidelines. The list goes on.
One of the things that most distressed me was the curt manner they have dealt with citizens at City Council meetings. There should be no place for rudeness. Can you imagine, in this day, of a group of politicians calling those who disagree with them “CAVE people,” or Citizens Against Virtually Everything?
Only in Surprise.
Election Day is approaching. It’s the opportunity for the people to have their say. Or is it the last laugh?
Above article by Joel Nilsson, Arizona Republic
Taken from the Daily News Sun, Sept.7, 07
Valley governments prove unfriendly to taxpayers
CHAD KIRKPATRICK AND TOM JENNEY ARIZONA FEDERATION OF TAXPAYERS
The Arizona Federation of Taxpayers, a state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, recently released its first annual scorecard on local governments in Arizona, grading 563 local officials from around the state on tax and budget policy. The scorecard covers city council members from Bullhead City to Safford, and county supervisors from Apache County to Yuma County.
In Maricopa County, seven city council members earned the designation of Friend of the Taxpayer: Danny Arismendez of Surprise, Steven Berman and Don Skousen of Gilbert, Jim Lane, Ron McCullagh, and Tony Nelssen of Scottsdale, and Tom Rawles of Mesa.
The slightly lower but still respectable Ally of the Taxpayer designation went to Ron Aames and Carlo Leone of Peoria, William Conner and Adam Super of El Mirage, Dave Crozier of Gilbert, Mayor Elaine Scruggs of Glendale, all members of the Cave Creek council, and the majorities on the councils of Scottsdale and Surprise.
But most Valley officials will not be happy to see this year’s scorecard in the hands of local voters. Majorities on the Glendale and Peoria councils earned the designation of Allies of Big Government. Majorities on the Litchfield Park and Mesa councils earned the lower designation of Friends of Big Government, as did all of the members of the Fountain Hills council. Still lower were the majority on the Avondale council and all of the members of the Phoenix council, who scored as Champions of Big Government. At the bottom of the list were the members of the Chandler City Council, whose skyrocketing budget and property tax levies made them the Heroes of Big Government.
(Among Maricopa County cities and towns, Buckeye, Gila Bend, Guadalupe, Tolleson, Wickenburg, and Youngtown failed to post the relevant documents to their official city Web sites.)
There are several causes for the generally low scores earned by Valley officials.
Property taxes: Rates versus Levies. One of the main goals of the AFT-AFP scorecard is to clear up widespread confusion about property tax rates and property tax levies. Many Valley officials were proud to announce that they had lowered property tax rates, but with huge increases in assessed valuations, lower rates can still mean higher taxes. Few Valley officials kept their combined property tax levies from growing faster than the rate of state personal income growth.
No spending limits: Thanks to “home rule” measures passed by voters, the only spending limit faced by Valley cities and towns is their ability to bring in tax revenue. That means in a year of strong revenue growth, city and county spending growth can easily exceed the rate of population growth plus inflation (the fiscally conservative limit) and even exceed the rate of personal income growth (the fiscally moderate limit).
Huge boom in state-shared revenues: State-shared income tax revenues increased by seven percent this year, while state-shared sales tax revenues increased by a whopping 24 percent. Although every indicator shows that stateshared revenues will fall off sharply next year, many local officials chose to use those revenues to boost overall spending this year to levels that may not be sustainable in the future without sizeable budget cuts and/or tax increases. (Note to officials: Do not raise taxes.)
The growth illusion: Some officials will no doubt argue that they had to enact large budget increases in order to accommodate rapid population growth with adequate development infrastructure. But the truth is that an official’s political philosophy is the main determinant of how much he or she votes to spend. Some Valley officials in highgrowth areas voted for small spending increases, and some Valley officials in lower-growth areas voted for large spending increases. The real difference is that fiscally conservative officials relied more on the private sector for development infrastructure, while profligate officials relied more on government.
Nobody’s watching: Too many Valley officials seem to operate under the assumption that no one is watching them, and that their job is simply to spend as much money as they can. With the release of AFT-AFP’s scorecard, Valley officials are now on notice that the taxpayers are watching. We look forward to seeing much better scores next year.
Chad Kirkpatrick is chairman, and Tom Jenney is executive director, of the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers, a state chapter of Americans for Prosperity.
Since I have been running for the Mayors position in the City of Surprise I have kept politics off of this website but I want to make it clear that I believe that the city should be run like a business, operating efficiently and accountable so that the sales tax might be lowered to attract more customers for our business’s.
Another issue that has to be addressed is why am I the only candidate that talks about the problem that the City Manager has with the Mayor and Council my concerns can be found on this website.
The City of Surprise is in violation of the city code by having Cliff Elkins on the official website for the City of Surprise.
Article below (partial) taken from from the Daily News Sun
City Hall has a sealed ballot drop-off box through Friday, Sept. 7 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
I took my ballot to the City Hall on the afternoon of Sept. 7, they took my ballot, they did not have me drop it in a sealed drop-off box.
Bob Vukanovich
For election news see …………….surpriseaznews.info
Elkins and Truitt lead the mayoral pack in
fundraising
Tony Lombardo
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 5, 2007 08:31 AM
Two Surprise mayoral candidates have far outdistanced their competitors in campaign fundraising.
Former Councilman Cliff Elkins has the fattest war chest with nearly $23,000, according to the latest round of campaign-finance statements due Thursday at City Hall.
Planning & Zoning Commission Chairman Lyn Truitt is not far behind, with more than $18,750 raised.
The other competitors have much smaller pots. Political newcomer Richard Jenkins has raised more than $7,000, Councilwoman Martha Bails more than $5,300 and resident Anthony Messina $3,700. Former Councilman Bob Vukanovich, raised $2,000 in loans only.
The mayor’s race is a significant one. There are a record six candidates vying to replace Mayor Joan Shafer, who steps down at year’s end after serving as the city’s leader since 1995.
Of Elkins’ contributions from individuals, only about 15 percent comes from Surprise residents. Many individual donations are from people with a stake in local development. For example, representatives from Element Homes, which builds models in Marley Park, donated about $2,370.
Political-action committees that donated to Elkins’ campaign include the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, with a $1,000 donation, and firefighter groups throughout the Valley.
Truitt said that about two-thirds of his collected funds come from residents. The Friends of Lyn Truitt group raised nearly $7,000 early in the campaign.
However, during the period covered by this latest filing, June 1-Aug. 22, Truitt received a lot of contributions from individuals in the business sector. Element Homes representatives also donated $2,330, as did multiple real-estate professionals. Truitt operates his own real estate business.
Bails, who received no donations from developers, criticized candidates who accepted those contributions.
“Nobody had to buy Martha’s ear,” she said.
Elkins dismissed the remark.
“(Developers) have a comfort level, knowing what I’ve done for the last couple years,” he said. “And I didn’t solicit anybody. It all came to me.”
Truitt said it was clear that nobody with business dealings in Surprise was “looking for favors.”
“I recognize they are stakeholders,” he said. “They have a vested interest in what happens in Surprise. It’s reasonable they would want to participate in bringing in the best leadership.”
Other information gleaned from the reports:
There have been a lot of things happening in Surprise, Az that has to be looked at, having returned from my vacation I hope to get answers to the questions that I’ve been asked.
If I am not in the run off for the Mayors race I will write articles about the elections.
Another website that has news about the elections in Surprise, Az is surpriseaznews.info
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