Happy Holidays, all!

Whatever your faith background, culture or political persuasion, may you all experience Peace and Joy with your families this season.

And from my own faith convictions, I sincerely wish you each a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Councilman Orlando holding Covance accountable

Chandler, Arizona's City Councilman Matt Orlando and others are holding Covance's feet to the fire on maintaining open, honest dialogue in their meetings and on their advisory panel. From Chandler Connection (no permalink, sorry):

Orlando scolds Covance for intimidation tactics
By Marshall Terrill

Councilman Matt Orlando took Covance officials to task [for] asking residents who attended a pair of community meetings to sign good-conduct waivers and for trying to stack the deck on the formation of a citizens advisory panel. Orlando scolded officials of the biosciences company at the Dec. 14 council meeting after he heard residents were required to sign a good conduct agreement, which asked them not to hand out fliers or behave in a disruptive manner.

“It’s the first time in my 12 years on the council that I’ve ever heard of someone having to sign a good conduct agreement and frankly, I don’t want to go down this road,” Orlando said. “This stifles communication. We want open and honest dialogue and the last thing we want to do is try and intimidate people.”

... Orlando added that he was dismayed to hear reports from residents that Covance officials do not want animal rights activist on its community advisory panel. Orlando said if the company wants to be taken seriously, a community advisory panel must be comprised of individuals with a diverse range of opinions.

“I don’t fully agree with the fact activists shouldn’t be on the panel,” Orlando said. “Quite frankly, if you put them on your panel you won’t be criticized because you already have been criticized.”

Resident Kathy Keirsted said that she was invited to join the panel by Lance Decker, a consultant with Peoria-based Gunn Communications, Inc., who has been tapped by Covance to help form the panel. She said, however, a day after she attended an anti-Covance meeting, Decker’s attitude had changed.

“He said that he could not get people to return his calls because of the holiday season and the panel was sort of up in the air,” Keirsted said Monday. “I was basically lied to, and it’s just another lie within another lie.”

Keirsted said she would serve on the panel if asked again.

“I am not against animal testing but I am all for keeping the rules,” she said. “This is supposed to be a neutral panel, but it doesn’t certainly appear that way.”

[Covance Spokesperson Camilla] Strongin said the panel is still a few weeks away from being formed. She said the Chandler City Council and the Chandler Chamber of Commerce are screening applications for a 10- to 18-member panel, which would require a minimum of three years of service.

“We are looking at a very diverse group of people ranging from chemists, business people, construction and education who offer a lot of different opinions,” Strongin said, adding that including animal rights activists would be counter productive to their sessions. State Sen. Jay Tibshraeny and Chandler native, said the panel needs to be inclusive.

“The committee needs to have credibility. In order to achieve that, Covance needs to select membership that represents a wide cross-section of our community,” Tibshraeny said Monday. “Inclusiveness is the key.”

Folley Precinct (134) goes Blue in '06

The Maricopa County Recorder has posted the election results by precinct. Blogger cpmaz has a good analysis of the precinct-by-precinct breakdown on the Hayworth-Mitchell race.

From the County Recorder's site, I've culled out the info for our precinct, Folley 134. For the key races and two of the most controversial Propositions, the numbers are below:

Registration and Turnout:
Edge Early Voting Turnout 0
Election Day Voting Turnout 470
Paper Early Voting Turnout 306
Total voters: 776

Attorney General:
DEM - GODDARD, TERRY 487
Write-In Candidate 1
REP - MONTGOMERY, BILL 254

US Representative (CD-5):
DEM - MITCHELL, HARRY 403
LBT - SEVERIN, WARREN 44
Write-In Candidate 2
REP - HAYWORTH, J.D. 302

Governor:
DEM - NAPOLITANO, JANET 523
LBT - HESS, BARRY J., II 26
Write-In Candidate 2
REP - MUNSIL, LEN 215

Secretary of State (LD-20):
DEM - TORRES, ISRAEL 302
LBT - HANCOCK, ERNEST 50
Write-In Candidate 1
REP - BREWER, JAN 378

State Representative (LD-20):
LBT - HEALD, JACK 226
Write-In Candidate 6
REP - MCCOMISH, JOHN 308
REP - ROBSON, BOB 300

State Senator (LD-20):
DEM - GRATEHOUSE, DONNA 366
Write-In Candidate 1
REP - HUPPENTHAL, JOHN 374

US Senator:
DEM - PEDERSON, JIM 374
LBT - MACK, RICHARD 44
Write-In Candidate 2
REP - KYL, JON 343

Prop 107 (Gay Marriage Ban Amendment):
NP - NO 434 (57.4%)
NP - YES 321 (42.5%)
(cf. state overall of 48.2% "Yes" and 51.8% "No")

Prop 202 (Raise the Minimum Wage):
NP - NO 237 (31.1%)
NP - YES 524 (68.9%)
(c.f. state overall of 65% "Yes" to 35% "No")

The take-home message from these numbers? With minor exceptions (e.g., the State Senate (LD20)* and Secretary of State races), our precinct went decidedly for the Democratic candidates in the November 06 elections.

And on the most controversial Propositions, our precinct was more progressive than the state averages.

*[Senator Huppenthal's own precinct, Tamarisk, shows the following results in the LD-20 Senate race:

DEM - GRATEHOUSE, DONNA 444 (39.2%)
Write-In Candidate 0
REP - HUPPENTHAL, JOHN 688 (60.8%)

Consider that the total election results for LD-20 were:
DEM - GRATEHOUSE, DONNA 25603 (46.9%)
Write-In Candidate 67
REP - HUPPENTHAL, JOHN 28868 (52.9%)

The overall differential in this close election was 3,265 votes, 244 of which came from Huppenthal's own precinct.]

Trinity Donovan Interview - Part 3 of 5 (24Dec06)

Here's Part 3 of the wide ranging, five-part interview with Chandler, Arizona City Councilmember Trinity Donovan which took place on November 16, 2006.

(Other portions of this transcript can be located under the corresponding date heading, here.)

---

Geo: One of the things that property owners have been dealing with for the past few years here in Chandler is the housing boom – you mentioned that briefly. Obviously, when the property values go up and you end up paying more property taxes, that’s a concern for property owners. However, property taxes are part of the revenue that the city needs to be able to properly function and pay for key infrastructure. There’s some “back-correction” now in some of the housing values after the boom, but it probably won’t back-correct too much and moving forward, we’ll probably continue to see healthy growth with Chandler being built out and with other factors related to the city’s growth. How do you see the long-term impact of the housing boom and property taxes in terms of revenue? What is your take on that – do you have any insights or perspectives as a Councilmember?

TD: Well, one thing we’re going through and taking a look a now is changing our system impact fees. That something that new homeowners, well, the home builders, will have a certain amount of money they have to give Chandler. And that’s passed on to new home buyers. That’s important to be planned into the community as we look at build—out we’re going to be getting less of those impact fees. But now we know more about that as we go through it, as we get closer, what does buildout mean…how many fire stations does that look like as we find out how many more houses are going to be there. How much open space needs to be there? What kind of amenities, how many police do we need to have?

You know, it’s been exciting that we just opened up our first sub-station in West Chandler and then broke ground for the one in South Chandler. Which, while the bricks and mortar of that can be expensive, that allows us to really have police out in the community and be able to respond quicker. As I was driving to the one in South Chandler – with construction of course – it can take a long time to get to the very south of Chandler or to West Chandler.

It’s looking at really knowing what we need, to be able to put a price on those things and not then live our year-to-year budget and just decide that we didn’t have this paid for – didn’t have growth pay for itself as much as possible.

Geo: That’s the major new development going on, slated I guess for 2007, that’s going to include the police substation, with a large park, a biking park --

TD: Yes, and wetlands.

Geo: Right, wetlands.

TD: That’s at Lindsey and Chandler Heights. And the ground breaking just happened two weeks ago – the 9th. That also shows that the planning is important because of the partnerships on this land. Instead of just building a police substation, we’re going to look at how we use it for police, for public works – because it’s water recharge – and for parks & rec to make it an amenity that everyone can use. And those partnerships between departments, like the partnerships we talked about before with the schools, really help to use our resources wisely.

With the substation in West Chandler - it’s at Desert Breeze Park – a police and a fire station as well. So, merging those together and using that land that we have, really, I think saves money and creates synergies within departments so that Chandler can be working together for what’s best for Chandler.

You mentioned the property taxes, I think it’s important that when we look at the budget, what is the budget that we need for Chandler to be a healthy place, a place where people want to stay? There are other communities surrounding us that have had problems with their budget. Losing money, having to cut down. There are parks now that are closed, the library closing on more restricted hours. To spend all that money on the bricks and mortar, to create a park that can cost a lot of money and then have it just close really wasn’t a good use of taxpayer money and community resources. So those property taxes have to be balanced looking at what are the needs and how do we get that revenue.

We can’t just rely on property taxes and that’s why diversification of employment and retail is important. It’s nice to have convenience of places that people know they want to shop at and they’re familiar with – and it’s good to keep Chandler resident dollars in Chandler with our sales tax – but we want to be able to take sales tax money from people who live in surrounding areas as well. Having a store that they have in their own community isn’t going to be what drives them to come shop here and help pay for our quality of life. But it’s those places like Downtown Chandler that has some potential and is doing some good things. It’s also looking at other areas. Places that are near the freeway where it’s convenient for people. What makes Chandler special? Why do people who don’t live here want to come in? So that balance of convenience, uniqueness and diversity is important, so we don’t have to just rely on our property taxes.

And we won’t have to do that. We have good sales revenue from places like the Mall – and other places, but that’s a large retail center. But there are many more that are helping to support us. And then there are those industry partners, as well.

Geo: I was fascinated by your campaign and have some questions I’d like to ask you about it, but two very quick questions about your service on council first. What is different, if anything, now that you’re in the role, than what you may have perceived when you were running or before you conceived of running for Council? How has your perspective developed?

TD: Well, I’ve lived in Chandler for 21 years and have a pretty good knowledge of Chandler. But I continue to learn more and more about Chandler and appreciate having this role where people can come to me to let mw know what their concerns are or what they really want to see supported. Being on Council is not for someone who wants to be liked by 100% of the population because there are always going to be people on two sides of the vote that has to be made – or both sides of the vote. Really, how do we work as a community or work with the perspectives of those who have a vested interest in Chandler, who are living here, who are helping to support our quality of life, so that we can have the best community possible and keep improving our community instead of having to regress back into the things like closing parks or the library.

Geo: Has there been anything in the past couple of months – two or three months – since you’ve been on the Council that you’ve said “Wow, that was totally different than what I thought, looking as an outsider”?

TD: I definitely have gained more respect for all people who are in elected positions, In the insight of – you know, many people who come with frustrations, it’s just they don’t feel like they’ve been listened to by anyone, so they take it out on me. And I think it’s important that it’s not about me, it’s about this issue that hasn’t been resolved for them. So it’s important that I don’t take personally the attack that I may get, but really look at what is the issue that they’re dealing with and how do we work on that issue. That has definitely been something, for all elected officials whether I agree with them or not, I do respect them more being in the position now.

And I’d say one thing that is a surprise to me is the amount of reading that, the packets I get each week, from the agendas, of course. But then, all of the other things that are coming to us: memos from staff to keep us informed, emails about different things (and we get copies of emails that are given to all of the Council members, not just ourselves), to the invitations to events happening in Chandler, publications that come. I get hefty packets to read each week.

Geo: It’s said that this is ostensibly a “part-time job”. But I’ve heard other people that, you know, you go into a position like this and it can well become consuming. How many hours a week – or, let’s say, on a monthly basis – has been your experience so far as you are going through this learning curve?

TD: It’s hard…I think I purposely haven’t really looked at ho mmany hours, because it is quite a few. The meetings that we have, of course, are typically four meetings a month: two strategy sessions and two Council meetings. They start at seven and they can go for as long or as short as the business allows them to. But then the Executive Sessions and meetings with others – we’ll be meeting with Planning and Zoning tonight, we met with Tempe City Council earlier this week, And then meeting with residents that want to talk about issues. Developers who have projects that are coming before us and want to ensure that we don’t have any questions. And all the grand opening events or other events and then plus the reading and background information.

I guess I could look at my schedule (laughs) and say “this week”… I mean, there are some Saturdays where I say “Okay, I went to four events for Council this Saturday.” Thankfully, there are two things that help. It is a lot of work, but two things that are important in helping me feel not overwhelmed. One is that I’m enjoying it, so the events I get to go to, while it may be that my Saturday is consumed by events for the City, it’s things that I’m happy to be a part of and to see what’s going on and to be a part of Chandler.

And then, it’s been good in that my job at United Way is flexible, in that I may have a meeting that starts at seven in the morning for United Way or ends at seven at night. Because of that, I don’t have an 8-to-5 schedule and can then be able to meet in the day if that’s most convenient for others and not have to work around a strict 8-to-5 schedule. So that flexibility has helped me in this position as well.

Geo: Has it taken more time to run for office or to actually serve in office?

TD: Yeah, I think that the campaign was definitely a good primer for the amount of time it would take. When I was campaigning, everyone wanted to understand who I was at this time before they voted for me. And now that I’m in office, people come when their issues arise. I was walking neighborhoods, it was about 14 to 15 hours per weekend, plus meetings at night and then meeting with different people to answer their questions, calling people. It felt like the campaign was more hours in a concentrated amount of time but then there are weeks being elected that, some weeks have more hours devoted towards Council than others.

Geo: What kind of media focus are you seeing now as a Councilmember? Do you find journalists maintaining an interest in your individual involvement or is it more interest in the Council as collective?

TD: I think it could be that if I raise issues or if I create controversy, then there would be more attention devoted to me solely. I think it typically is the Council as a whole and then what’s divergent among Council may be brought up. But then, there are things like…I cut my hair for “Locks of Love” recently. The San Tan Sun saw me, so they took a picture of me. So there are things like that where, you know, that wouldn’t have happened…(laughing)…it’s not something that they would have covered before. Or, it’s a community paper, so perhaps. But I want to say that it’s really not about me, personally, and more about the Council when I think of that, for instance.

Geo: Speaking of your campaign, one of the things I was amazed by – and I don’t know if this speaks more to my cynicism or jaded attitude, having seen a number of campaigns, but – the Council race is non-partisan. But there’s clearly a sub-text there or an undercurrent of some factionalism and partisanship. So I was amazed by the fact that you had strong support and endorsement across the board - in community organizations, members of the Council. I could not find a single person that had anything even neutral to say about you, much less negative. And so I thought “Who is this angel who is running for City Council?”

TD: (Laughs) And what’s wrong with her that we don’t know about!?

Geo: Exactly! Where’s the…you know! To what do you attribute – and this is a softball question, but I’m sincerely curious – to what do you attribute that when there’s obviously, I mean, this is politics.

TD: I didn’t get endorsements from the Council until after the first election. Or endorsements from many others, actually. The first election, there were seven of us running. Bob Caccamo was the incumbent and he got in straight out and I was the top person moving into the runoff election. At that point is when I saw a lot of the organizations and more established people giving me their endorsements. I had the endorsement of the Arizona Republic before and that was something that I was pleased about. Because there are some endorsements that are political and organizations endorsing people for political reasons or “who can win” or “who likes this person”, perhaps. But the Arizona Republic, getting that, there was nothing I could have done to “bribe” them or…(laughs)

Geo: Exactly, no "zoning for their warehouse in Phoenix", for example.

TD: Exactly. But I do think what contributed to me getting the endorsement of the Arizona Republic is that they had known me at ICAN, they had reported on the work I had done in the community and had a relationship with me. And that was interesting for me, too, because, typically the papers would come to me when they wanted a good story. Heartfelt, good quote. And now I was going into the political world, so now it’s…(laughing) I have to be a “bad person” if I’m in politics so “what can we uncover about her”. So I was wondering how my relationship with the media would change and it’s been good, so far, and it was good during the campaign, I think, too. Again, I think it wasn’t what I did during the campaign but it was about what I’d done before I campaigned that got me the Arizona Republic endorsement.

And I think getting the endorsements from all of the Councilmembers, while they disagreed – and of course the media liked to portray that, too – and there was a four-three split. I had known each of them previously, mainly through my work at ICAN, being in Downtown Chandler I needed to know the Council members. So I had the relationships, I had known some better than others, but I had known each of them on some level. It wasn’t about me coming as a person who would be on a side, but instead it would be me coming to work with everyone. And it’s not about agreeing, but it’s about being respectful as we do what we think is right for Chandler, which may be different than what someone next to me or what someone else on the dais thinks is right.

And I think in getting all of the endorsements, it wasn’t “I’ll endorse you if you’ll be in my camp”. As we look at what has happened on Council since Jeff and I have gotten on, I don’t think it’s something that the two of us have done, but two new people mean a new start. So people in my perspective are getting along. Many of the votes – there was someone in the Chandler Independent “Speak Out” after our second meeting about people who supposedly were on one side were splitting and voting yes and no on one of these issues. I don’t think that was because the Council had changed. Those kind of things were happening before, as well. But there’s a new calmness, I think, of “okay, let’s work together”.

At least, that’s how I perceive it. What’s going on behind the scenes, maybe I don’t know, but I‘m treated with respect by everyone there and I give respect to everyone there.

Geo: Well, it’s outstanding. I really appreciate that you, as an elected official, are doing that. As I said earlier, I was covering a lot about the “Gang of Four” talk and the Pentz issue and the elections and so forth. The one thing that stood out to me, head and shoulders above all of that, I guess you might say, negative aspect of the race, was the solidity of the support and endorsements of one candidate in the race, namely yourself. And I thought, “when does that ever happen?” You know, when do people ever set aside their factionalisms and their preferences and their undercurrent of politics and get behind one person?

TD: I think when you create a relationship with someone, and it doesn’t have to be deep or long-lasting, but when you know a person and who they are, it’s harder to demonize them. And I think, being a local elected official, people come up to me in the stores, I see people when I’m out and about, whereas people on a national level, we don’t necessarily know them as much and it can be easier, I think, to demonize them than it is the locals. But because I knew the Council members and talked with them and was willing to talk to them all, it’s harder to be against someone based on things that you hear from others instead of who they really are.

Geo: You said you worked with ICAN for a couple of summers and then you became the CEO. How do you make that kind of jump from being a summer volunteer to becoming the CEO of an organization?

...

To be continued later in Part 4 of 5!

Senator Huppenthal, please stop digging and have some egg nog.

This is not the kind of post I would have cared to make on Christmas Eve. Not to mention there are other pressing matters that are claiming my attention right now. But when an "accountability moment" demands attention, one usually shouldn't delay. And honestly, I don't care to have to deal with this any more than I feel I have to, so I'll try to address it now and get it out of the way.

In a comment on one of my previous posts, our fellow blogger at "No More Mr. Nice Guy" brings to my attention that Arizona State Senator John Huppenthal, quite unsatisfied with allowing his unethical Wikipedia-editing behavior to simply fade into history, is still actively trying to rationalize his actions.

Personally, I had hoped we had moved beyond this whole thing and that Senator Huppenthal, even if he didn't have the good graces to admit his error and apologize, would at least have had the good sense to stop talking about it. Yet now, on the eve of Christmas, Senator Huppenthal steps into it again with an even more offensive attempt to justify his behavior.

The latest Huppenthal spin? In a comment on NMMNG's post, Huppenthal has the gall to say his blatant deletion of true but embarrassing political facts about himself and his political ally, Ken Bennett, was either a "truthful or compassionate" act.

I'll say that again: Huppenthal says it is truthful or compassionate to hide the truth that a Recall election was launched against him last year. He says it is truthful or compassionate to edit his political opponent Slade Mead's article to hide the truth that Huppenthal spent twice as much money as Mead did in order to beat him. He wants us to believe it's truthful or compassionate to delete references to two key political controversies that embroiled his political ally, Ken Bennett.

If this is what some people call "true" and "compassionate", then no wonder politics is in such a sorry state and people like Tom Delay and "Duke" Cunningham and Jack Abramoff are so popular with some people.

We are supposed to have leaders of integrity and discernment representing us in the corridors of power. But when a State Senator engages in blatantly unethical behavior - on even so seemingly trivial an issue - and then rationalizes it as "truthful or compassionate", it seems to be just one more data point supporting the cynics' argument that politicians can't be trusted.

We all have a responsibility to hold our elected officials accountable for ethical behavior. Sadly, it seems that traditional media here in our state is dropping the ball on some of the ethical lapses of our representatives. In such a vacuum, private citizens have a responsibility to speak out. That's what has motivated me to divulge the story about Huppenthal to begin with and is also why I have posted a response to Senator Huppenthal's latest assertion, which I repeat here.

Dear Senator Huppenthal,

Seriously, Senator. I've tried to maintain a degree of respect for you when discussing this, but your persistent efforts to excuse what was clearly unethical behavior is fast becoming ridiculous, and in such a way that it seriously impeaches the respect one would like to have for you as a person, as well as for your office.

"Compassionate"? You deleted information about the Recall launched against you in order to be "compassionate"??? That you would suggest that your unethical behavior was an act of compassion is outrageous and offensive, and that you would say it in the Christmas season is all the more insulting to the very meaning and spirit of compassion. As a Christian, you surely should know better.

And let's be very clear. I am not "attempting to imply otherwise". I'm stating it outright: you have UNETHICALLY DELETED TRUE BUT EMBARRASSING INFORMATION about yourself and a political ally from a publicly maintained database of information. I want to state that again, explicitly, because I am not playing with implications or using misleading half-truths. Every assertion I have made about what you did is backed up by clear evidence that any of my readers can see for themselves. No, the facts of this matter are adequately demonstrated and are not in question at all, sir.

Moreover, if you seriously expect people to accept that your edits to Wikipedia were done while being open and above-board about your involvement in making these edits then I regret to inform you that your sense of "openness" needs some very real recalibration.

You did NOT make your edits to Wikipedia under an account name which clearly indicated who you were. The only way that it became clear that you made these edits, is that you told me you had been editing another entry. Then I pieced together from your IP number the other edits you'd made. Had I never addressed this on my blog, probably no one would ever have known that you, specifically, had made these edits.

As for "truthful or compassionate", sir, it pains me to have to repeat this, but you DELETED true information about yourself and your political allies that reflected badly on you. You hid the TRUTH, sir. The truth that Bennett had been involved in two key controversies. The TRUTH that a Recall election had been launched against you. The TRUTH that you spend twice as much as Slade Mead to beat him. Deleting that information is not an act of "compassion", as you absurdly suggest. It's an act of egotism and unethical politics and you should know it.

When you actively work to conceal from your constituents the embarrassing TRUTH about yourself, it is not an ethical act. I find it disturbing in the extreme that you suggest otherwise, when you are supposed to be representing me and my neighbors with integrity, sir.

Is this the ethical standard to which you have held yourself during the many years of your political career? If so, one shudders to imagine the hidden results of this kind of attitude wielding a modicum of temporal power for so many years.

It is bad enough that you did these things to begin with, Senator. But that you persist in trying to rationalize these unethical actions is far, far worse! It indicates a disturbing lapse of ethical sensibility, as well as a gross inability to admit when you're wrong (or at least have the good sense to stop trying to rationalize bad behavior). For someone who has a position of leadership in our community, that is extremely distressing.

I know your legacy means a lot to you, Senator. In every interaction I've had with you, online or in person, you've taken great pains to heap praise upon yourself. Indeed, your lengthy, meticulous crafting and editing of your own Wikipedia article demonstrates amply your desire to polish your legacy to a fine gloss.

But I am sad to inform you that, by your own actions and comments, you, yourself, are continuing to do far more to damage your "legacy" than anyone else could. If you do not have the ethical sensibility to realize or admit that you are wrong on this issue, at least do yourself a favor and quit trying to defend such clearly indefensible behavior.

Senator, I hope your holidays are filled with much joy and peace as you share them with your family. I also hope you will do some serious soul-searching about this issue - not just to determine how you can spin it to your benefit, but to actually recognize that what you did was unethical and that your continued defense of it reflects very poorly upon you.

I do hope and pray for better from you in 2007, sir.

Your very disappointed constituent,
Geo

Learning a lot from helpful neighbors.

As we are in the holiday season and drawing the year to a close, I just wanted to take the opportunity to express thanks to a number of people who have been kindly helping me learn a lot about public policy, community development and related issues in our community. While I have experience in business here in the East Valley and in community development work overseas, this past year has been one of learning quite a bit more about my home community and the politics and policy relevant to me and my neighbors.

Among these folks are all the journalists and fellow bloggers that do such a great job keeping up on the news and holding our public officials accountable. We have some outstanding journalists and bloggers here in the East Valley. I rely heavily on them for much of what I present in this blog.

I'd also like to thank my readers - the ones who comment online and the ones who comment by private email. Your information, insights, encouragement and constructive criticism are very important to me and I hope to continue to provide a service through this blog that you feel is helpful and worth your time to read.

I'd also like to thank our public officials. Your sacrifice of public service and effort on behalf of our community is appreciated. I'm grateful for the interviews and the other comunications that have helped me understand what you're working on and the challenges you face. Even for those of you I don't endorse, I nevertheless respect your service.

I'd also like to specifically thank recent candidate for Arizona Senate Donna Gratehouse for her particular help in understanding many of the issues facing us. Donna has exhibited extraordinary "constituent support" in responding to my many inquiries and helping me to understand her views on the political and policy dynamics of our community. In fact, following the election, Donna agreed to further help me by serving as a "mentor" on election and campaign issues for the next few months to help me understand these processes better.

Thanks to all of you for your significant help. There's a lot going on in our part of the Valley and, because of you all, I feel like I'm getting to know my community in a much deeper way.

Huppenthal partisan vandalizes Wikipedia

The Wikipedia-editing saga continues.

Recently I reported how Arizona State Senator John Huppenthal was editing his own and other entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia to polish his own bio, suppress true but embarrassing information about himself and a political ally and skew issue articles in favor of his ideology. I noted how this was a violation of Wikipedia policies and, aside from being rather cheesy, was also downright unethical (deleting facts to suppress them from public knowledge, especially).

Since that report, the story has taken on a life of its own, as I noted here. As I reported here, my blog post received national attention and Senator Huppenthal responded, which response I commented on, as well.

The story is not going away, however, with another development this week.

It appears that a Huppenthal partisan (if not the Senator himself) has created an account under the user name of "Greenfields" on Wikipedia to carry on the vandalism of Wikipedia entries. Including the vandalism by "Greenfields" and the required corrections by watchdog editors, Huppenthal's entry has been edited 33 more times since this story first broke about a week ago.

After repeatedly deleting whole portions of Wikipedia articles embarrassing to Senators Huppenthal and Bennett, user "Greenfields" was warned to stop the vandalism. To hide the brewing controversy he had contributed to, "Greenfields" then deleted portions of Huppenthal's logs showing the discussion about these edits as well as portions of his own user logs showing the adonishments from Wikipedia's management to cease the vandalism. After multiple warnings, the user was blocked from further editing Wikipedia articles.

A few key aspects of this ongoing scandal:

a. The creation of the "Greenfields" account and the specific edits to the articles of John Huppenthal, Ken Bennett and Merit Pay (in some cases, making the exact same edits Senator Huppenthal made) make it clear that the user "Greenfields" is acting directly in Huppenthal's favor in response to the report I posted.

b. "Greenfields" was admonished repeatedly that his actions were in violation of Wikipedia policy and considered vandalism of the public database, yet continued to vandalize the online encyclopedia even after being told this.

c. The vandal also tried to suppress information about the controversy by deleting portions of the logs on Huppenthal's page that document the edits that were made and the discussion surrounding them.

d. "Greenfields" then tried to cover his tracks by accusing other users of vandalism and deleting portions of his OWN user page that documented repeated admonishments to cease his editing and vandalizing the entries.

e. After extraordinary patience by the Wikipedia management, the vandal was finally blocked indefinitely from making any further edits. On the page linked above, one of the managing editors made this admonishment to "Greenfields" prior to blocking him:

If you believe that untrue statements are being made in biographical articles, you need to discuss the verifiability (or lack thereof) of those statements on the talk page for the article. You've done nothing but repeatedly blank content without comment, accuse people who have made legitimate edits of vandalism, and revert legitimate edits repeatedly. All of this has been done in violations of several Wikipedia policies. If you work for - or are - either Senator Huppenthal or Senator Bennett, it is even more important that you have an open discussion with other Wikipedians on the topic, to ensure that the articles about them are kept truthful and verifiable. See WP:LIVING. Also, many of us dealing with your edits have shown a great deal of patience in waiting for you to discuss the issue, and I hope that you will return that respect by actually discussing it rather than continuing your pattern of poor edits.

For those who aren't plugged in to the Internet very much, you may not appreciate the impact Wikipedia articles can have on informing folks. Many people use it as a first-stop for getting a quick glimpse at a subject, as the Wikipedia article is often one of the most prominent sources of information for given subjects on the Internet. Though it is user-editable, the entries tend to be reliable for such broad, non-academic research. Increasingly, people are using the Internet to research candidates for voter education. So editing a Wikipedia article does have a genuine impact on public information where public officials are concerned.

This is made all the more important in Senator Huppenthal's case because he has repeatedly refused to complete on-line surveys on where he specifically stands on key issues, such as the prominent NPAT survey by Project Vote Smart.

But don't take my word for it. As evidence of the importance of Wikipedia to voters, witness Senator Huppenthal's own prodigious efforts spent to polish his own bio and suppress information that was embarrassing to him. As well, witness user "Greenfield's" desperate attempts to carry on Senator Huppenthal's work, even to the point of trying to cover his tracks and suppress information about the conroversy. These people wouldn't be trying so hard to skew and suppress Wikipedia's information if they thought it was a trivial database.

This is the point at which it is appropriate, once more, to ask Senator Huppenthal whether he recognizes that attempting to delete and suppress information from a public database - information which is true, but embarrassing to himself - is acceptable or ethical by his standards. I believe most people would consider it to be clearly unethical, but Senator Huppenthal has yet to answer to this point and appears to not be bothered by it at all.

Also, does Huppenthal approve of user "Greenfields", whomever that may be, and his continued vandalism of Wikipedia on the Senator's behalf? Or his blatant attempted suppression of information about this controversy?

Does Senator Huppenthal know "Greenfields"? IS Senator Huppenthal, himself, "Greenfields"?

A clearer statement from the Senator is called for on these points.

News and views roundup - Dec. 2, 2006

Lots for you today! Here's the latest news and views for Chandler, Arizona and the surrounding community:

1. Chandler Mayor cuts columnist some slack.

"Now, therefore, I, Boyd W. Dunn, mayor of the city of Chandler, do hereby proclaim Nov. 28, 2006, as 'If you see Andrew J. Schwartzberg out and about acting like a giddy, careless fool, you need to just leave him be and let him go on his merry way' Day in Chandler."

2. Loan buys time for project

Developer maintains control, has year to find equity lender

Jeff Cline, the developer of the troubled hotel-condo project at Chandler Fashion Center, has obtained a bridge loan of $24 million - saving the project from a foreclosure auction that had been scheduled for February.

The loan won't be enough to get work restarted, but it buys Cline time - up to a year - to find an equity lender that would allow him to continue with construction. It also means he will retain control of the project.

3. Covance foe blows whistle

Wisconsin monkeys contracted disease

Tuberculosis was discovered in five monkeys in the Madison, Wis., facility of drug-testing giant Covance this year, an incident made public by a Covance opponent, Chandler-based Citizens Against Covance.

4. Winning Democratic duo see youth as big plus

...in November [Ed Ableser] clobbered legislative veteran Laura Knaperek. His 26-year-old running mate, David Schapira, also won — giving the south Scottsdale and Tempe legislative district a pair of twentysomething lawmakers.

5. Chandler ambulance contract in jeopardy

Arizona health officials are threatening to kill an ambulance contract in Chandler as the state wants to halt a trend that could send service costs skyrocketing throughout the Valley.

The Arizona Department of Health Services won’t sign off on an agreement between Chandler and two ambulance companies until they take out provisions that could trigger a spike in costs for ambulance trips.

6. Organic stores: 2 open, 2 close

Sprouts are sprouting in Chandler and Gilbert - and community residents and officials are delighted.

Sprouts Farmers Market, an Arizona based food retailer specializing in fresh produce, vitamins, holistic health products, fresh meats and organic products, will open its doors to customers Feb. 1, 2007 in Gilbert, at Val Vista Drive and Williams Field Road.

In Chandler, a second Sprouts will open at Alma School and Queen Creek roads the same day, to complement its first Sprouts, Ray and Dobson Roads.

7. Kyrene parents divided on unification issue: Some take sides, some still don’t see point of combining school districts (no permalink, sorry)
By Jason Ludwig, Arizona Foothills News

Lively discussion and unanswered questions were the twin hallmarks of the Kyrene School District’s most recent public forum on unification, held Monday at Kyrene Aprende Middle School in Chandler. About 30 concerned community members, many from the Chandler portion of the district, asked questions and shared concerns about the two initial unification plans proposed by the legislatively created School District Redistricting Commission.

The first plan, called the “three-into-one” plan, proposes combining the Kyrene, Tempe Elementary and Tempe Union High school districts into one mega-district. The other plan, called the “three-into-two” plan, proposes creating two K-12 districts out of Tempe Union’s current borders, divided along Guadalupe. A third option discussed at the meeting was leaving Kyrene as it is, an independent K-8 district.

8. Cost for sending your kid to KSD kindergarten: free (no permalink, sorry)
By Jason Ludwig, Ahwatukee Foothills News

Parents with youngsters in the Kyrene School District will be able to send their kids to kindergarten in the district free of charge starting next year. To start out, the district will offer 80 all-day kindergarten programs throughout the district and six half-day kindergarten programs. Both numbers could increase or decrease based on the number of students applying for enrollment, which opens in January.

“Anyone who wants half-day can have half-day, and anyone who wants all-day can get in all-day,” said district assistant superintendent Gina Taylor. “There’s no limitations.” The six half-day classes will be available on a regional basis, with regions defined by the six middle schools in the district. The regional plan was arrived at after a survey of district stakeholders revealed an overwhelming interest in all-day kindergarten as opposed to half-day.

Free kindergarten was made possible by Arizona’s budget for fiscal year 2006-07, which passed in mid-June.

[Note: All-Day K was a major initiative of Governor Janet Napolitano and was obstructed virulently by the Arizona State Legislature before it was finally passed. Senator Huppenthal, R-Ahwatukee, was one of the more outspoken opponents of the program and continues to express his reservations with it, though he did finally agree to sign the budget. -Geo]

9. Village collects Loop 202 freeway inquiries, concerns (sorry, no permalink)
By Doug Murphy, Ahwatukee Foothills News

Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst, the Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee is continuing to collect questions on how construction of the South Mountain Loop 202 will impact area residents. “What happens to Liberty Lane and what happens to Desert Foothills Parkway and access to the post office?” asked planning committee chair Doug Cole Monday night.

The planning committee, which opposes the freeway on Pecos Road, is going to collect questions and comments from residents until Jan. 15, then review the information and pass it along to the appropriate city department or to the Arizona Department of Transportation for action.

10. Weather watchers: ADOT adds stations as part of freeway plan (again, no permalink for AFN articles)
By Doug Murphy, Ahwatukee Foothills News

The Arizona Department of Transportation has contracted to establish a temporary weather monitoring station at 40th Street and Pecos Road. The portable station will record wind direction and speed, temperatures and humidity as part of the ongoing study to determine where the South Mountain Loop 202 will be built. According to Matt Burdick, a spokesman for ADOT, comments from people opposed to the freeway being built along Pecos Road include a general feeling that the winds came from the south and pushed air into South Mountain where it stagnates, potentially trapping pollution from the proposed 10-lane freeway.

The portable monitoring station will be in place until at least the end of the year and will help provide the state with solid data to answer the question. What it won’t answer are questions about current air quality. “It’s a meteorological station – it’s not monitoring air quality,” Burdick said.

Remove those signs, please!

Okay, it's December, already. Those election signs that festooned every street corner have done their work. In most cities, it's illegal for them to still be up. Yet there are several that still clutter our streets.

If you were a candidate or served on a candidate's campaign, please take the initiative to check your sign maps and confirm they've all been removed.

(Tip to JD Hayworth and John Huppenthal: I noticed some of your signs are still up, now in violation of election laws. I passed three of Hayworth's this past week on Chandler Boulevard and Huppenthal still has a huge one at IKEA, clearly visible from I-10 northbound, yesterday.)

Thanks to all of those other candidates that diligently removed their signs in the required time. I noticed that Donna Gratehouse's signs were gone swiftly, as were most other candidates' signs.

Of course, some candidates take another approach. Today, I saw a massive bllboard along I-10 heading into downtown Phoenix congratulating Senator Kyl on his victory. Surely defeating the spirit of the law, if not the letter.

Meanwhile, as cpmaz reports, the city of Scottsdale is looking at making their sign laws even tougher by possibly preventing them from being placed on public property at all!

Interview with Councilwoman Trinity Donovan - Part 2 of 5

Here is the second installment of my interview with Chandler, Arizona's recently elected City Councilwoman Trinity Donovan. The interview was conducted on November 16, 2006 in the Chandler City Council offices, downtown.

Topics included a broad range of issues related to the City of Chandler, Councilwoman Donovan's background and perspectives and the recent campaign for City Council.

Part One of this interview is located here.

Part Two:

Geo: Talking about education for a little bit, that’s one of the hot topics in just about every election (as it was in this last election at the state and national level). At the city level, you’ve only been in the role for two or three months but from your perspective, what is the city grappling with in terms of education? What are the issues that are on the table, things you see on the horizon?

TD: Well, we have more than one school district in Chandler and they are governed by school boards who really deal with the day to day in schools – what’s the quality of education and so forth. We have five school districts in Chandler, with I would say, two major ones: Kyrene and Chandler, Mesa is on the tip, Gilbert has a piece and Tempe High School District, I believe that’s five. So within the day to day work of the schools we don’t have much impact in the legislation of that. But really there are many opportunities for education in partnering with the schools and then outside of the schools.

Looking at that, schools are really a big piece of why people come into a community when they’re choosing where to move. Schools are a part of the quality of life. So I think it’s important that we’re working with the school districts to ensure that we have quality education. Some of the good partnerships that have happened have really been as we build new schools, new high schools, for example. We work with the school districts to partner on libraries and pools, so Parks and Rec amenities, those quality of life issues. When a school needs a library and you have community that needs one, instead, having it nearby so they don’t have to drive so far helps to make it more usable. Instead of building two facilities, let’s coordinate into one and save money and put the resources to better use for both of those two entities.

Geo: We’re approaching buildout here in the next two to three years. As Chandler begins to get a little “potbound”, how do you see the revenue base developing? One of the issues that came up in your campaign was the diversification of revenue sources – tax revenue and so forth. How do you see that developing? Will there be churning or revitalizing?

TD: We have about 15% of our land left on which to be able to build. Three percent is residential and that’s really what’s going to be built out first. Then industrial and retail is the other twelve percent of our available land. That won’t be built out in two to three years. That’ll be perhaps in seven to ten years.

I think Chandler staff has done a great job in creating a General Plan and looking at what do we want the city to look like. How do we have the rooftops, which are an important part of our community and enough or not too much to support the retail and industry options that are here. Now, that plan also has to be something that can be changed as the community changes and thing are changing around us. So it’s a delicate balance between having a plan but not sticking with the plan if it’s going to be detrimental to the growth of the community.

Diversification is something you mentioned as important. It’s great for us to have Intel here in Chandler. And with Intel and other high tech industries that have been here, that has helped to have the high incomes in our community and high educational attainment. It’s important for anyone, no matter how good an asset it is, to not just put all of their eggs in one basket of one industry. So that diversification is important. Looking at bio-industry is one. Countrywide has come in and is being a major employer here.

What are the other companies? Mary Jo Waits did a study for us on buildout. Something that has been coming across the nation is the “creative class” and what that means. How people don’t have to be right next to an office for their jobs, but the knowledge that they have is their asset and the community’s asset, more than the products that are being created. It’s the ideas that are being created and how those are marketed. And with that, someone can have their office located in California and be living here and transfer that information. Just the same, a company can be here but their employees can be somewhere else.

So how do we bring people in a new industry, the “knowledge industry”, to feel that Chandler is a good community to live in?

Geo: How do you?

TD: It’s quality of life. Looking at what amenities are important, such as schools as being important. I think it’s also important that we don’t try to be like the communities around us. I think it’s important to have an arts community, but what does “arts” mean? There are many types of art. I think it would be something if we tries to compete with “First Fridays” in Phoenix, that wouldn’t be, I think, the avenue which we should go. But looking at the strengths that they have and what strengths does Chandler have. We have had a lot of jazz performances here and that’s a strength of Chandler. I was downtown, I believe last Wednesday, and the downtown area had an art and wine event. It was on a Wednesday so we’re not competing with other arts events, but that was really a benefit for the downtown area. They’re already getting people there on Fridays and Saturdays. How do they bring more traffic in on the weekdays where someone might not come, but now there’s an event so there’s a reason to go there. It’s that kind of quality of life.

I grew up here, so I know thankfully many friends who have stayed here and many families I’ve known really since junior high. A lot of my friends from that long ago. But a lot of new people who move here, I’ve heard, sometimes have a hard time meeting people - and I’m talking about younger people – have a hard time meeting people their own age. Those informal meetings spaces, I think, Arizona has a hard time with that. Perhaps because other places have the colder weather and we have the heat, we’re not walking in the heat. When it’s really hot outside, we’re driving. And then our transportation system is based on driving places with closed windows and the air on. Going to the store and back to our air conditioned cars and back to our air conditioned homes. But where are those places that are the informal meeting places in which “community” can happen?

Our sense of community has changed, too, I think, from years past. Community was the neighborhood in which a person lived, but with mobility and cars and the transportation, we each have different communities, I think. Our neighborhood may be our community and we talk about how many neighbourhoods don’t have that sense of community with new people. It’s not a “transient population” per se, but new people moving in, the housing boom and people being able to get a bigger home. We’ll see how that changes now, but then we also have our work community, too. And many people now have a web-based community that’s new and, while giving people the relationships they need, isolating them from the community in which they’re physically, geographically placed.

And so, with those new challenges of what community means, how do we ensure that we’re that open community that people want to come to. I think a lot of people, when I walk neighbourhoods in my own personal experience, many people really like living in Chandler. And that is exciting too: it’s not a place where people are stuck in, but a place where they chose to be. And in doing that, we want to make sure that they want so stay here. I think the concerns that I’ve heard from people are that it’s a great place now, how do we make sure that it’s a great place twenty years from now?

Geo: One of the things that property owners have been dealing with for the past few years here in Chandler is the housing boom – you mentioned that briefly. Obviously, when the property values go up and you end up paying more property taxes, that’s a concern for property owners. However, property taxes are part of the revenue that the city needs to be able to properly function and pay for key infrastructure. There’s some “back-correction” now in some of the housing values after the boom, but it seems like there probably won’t back-correct too much and moving forward, we’ll probably continue to see healthy growth with Chandler being built out and with other factors related to the city’s growth. How do you see the housing boom and property taxes in terms of revenue? What is your take on that as a Councilmember?

...

Part Three of Five in this interview with Councilwoman Donovan will be posted next week!