Mesa Beat

Mesa is hosting a recycling event for electronic items Jan 10. According to a Mesa news release, computers, televisions, PDA phones, audio equipment and printers, among others, will be accepted.

A document shredder also will be available, for anyone interested. Residents can bring a maximum of five boxes of documents to be shredded. The event is open for residents, not for business establishments.

If You Go:

When: Jan 10, 8 a.m. to noon

Where: 2250 W. Broadway Rd. Mesa.

Information:(480) 644-2222 or www.mesaaz.gov

With all the gifts taken from under the Christmas tree, Mesa residents wishing to recycle the trees can do so for free through a city program. Before dropping them off, residents would need to remove any lights, ornaments and nails, among others, according to a city news release. Flocked trees will not be accepted.

The following 24-hour drop-off sites will be open Dec 26 to Jan 11: City of Mesa Solid Waste Management Department, 730 N. Mesa Dr, East Mesa Service Center, 6935 E. Decatur St., Superstition Springs Police/Fire Substation, 2430 S. Ellsworth Road, Mountain View Park, 845 N. Lindsay Rd., Dobson Ranch Park, 2363 S. Dobson Rd.

For more information, contact (480) 644-2688 or visit www.mesaaz.gov/waste

Officials at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport have tied up with a homeless shelter to help raise funds for the homeless courtesy a New Year’s Eve charity event. The proceeds will benefit the House of Refuge, a shelter in Mesa.

The House of Refuge is located close to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, the former Williams Air Force Base.

The IMPACT New Year’s Eve Charity Gala will be held at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix Dec 31.

Reservations cost $89 and have to be made by Dec. 29. The evening includes dinner and a champagne toast, live band entertainment, a performance by comedian Mark Cordes and a silent auction, among others.

To buy reservations, visit www.impactcharitygala.com

To know more about House of Refuge, visit http://www.hreast.org/

Westbound Main Street between Longmore and Dobson will be closed Saturday because of opening celebrations for light rail.

The restriction will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Eastbound lanes will remain open. Buses will continue to run on their regular route.

Westbound event traffic can use the park-and-ride at Sycamore on Main Street. Other vehicles will be directed north on Longmore to University Drive.  

Those not headed to the event are being advised to use the following detours:
Eastbound and westbound traffic should use Broadway or University
Northbound and southbound traffic should use Alma School or Dobson

Mesa’s light rail opening celebrations are scheduled to take place between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Residents can ride the rail for free. Live music, a classic car show and entertainment for kids is also planned.  

An ongoing Mesa internal investigation found the information from a tipster used in a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office affidavit to be “inaccurate” following the October raids of city buildings.

The affidavit — which was used by the sheriff’s office to get search warrants to raid City Hall, the downtown library and the municipal security building — references fired security systems technician Chuck Wilson’s statements to a sheriff’s detective that he was in charge of issuing badges for access to city buildings. It also mentioned that Mesa police Lt. Wade Pew had been made aware of the fact that forged documents were being used to get access badges to enter the buildings by employees of contractor Management Cleaning Controls.

The sheriff’s office had alleged that Mesa ignored information from Wilson and did not act on the tip.
Pew has denied that allegation and Mesa provided documents showing that it had internally followed up on the complaint from Wilson.

The city’s report, dated Monday, prepared by city attorney Catherine Bowman states the information contained in the search warrant affidavit “that is attributed to Chuck Wilson is inaccurate.”

The report states that unlike in the affidavit, Wilson was not involved in issuing city badges and was never “in charge” of issuing badges. It adds that two other employees, Charlene Gutierrez and Debi Maxwell, were responsible for providing access cards to Mesa employees and authorized contractors.

The affidavit was signed by sheriff’s Detective S. Monroe.

The city’s report was sent to the sheriff’s office on Monday, in addition to numerous other documents to fulfill a public records request by the sheriff’s office. These include any communication made or received by Pew, records regarding the investigations that led to the firing of Wilson in a sexual harassment case, and documents of Mesa’s internal investigation on the contractor’s alleged illegal workers.

Since the raids, Mesa police officials have also requested additional documents related to the case. The sheriff’s office has provided the search warrant affidavit and the search warrant. Nothing else on the case can be released because it could jeopardize the ongoing criminal investigation, sheriff’s office Deputy Chief Brian Sands said Tuesday.

Sands questioned Mesa making this report public at this time. Mesa police spokesman Ed Wessing had said earlier the information is pertinent to the case.

The report states that “Mesa does not have documents from (the sheriff’s office) that reflect what Wilson told Monroe, so Mesa does not know the source of the inaccuracies.”
Sands said Mesa’s report, which is yet to be reviewed by their office, is “an issue for the county attorney to respond to.”

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Tuesday he did not wish to comment on the report because he hadn’t read it yet. But he said that “the bottomline is we arrested 16 people for felonies.

“I don’t think it’s feasible to comment on the report anyway,” Arpaio said. “We still have a pending criminal investigation.”

Sixteen people were arrested in October’s raid, three at the city’s main library downtown and another 13 contract workers at their residences. Charges were filed against 11 workers in connection with fraud.

Sands said when the basic information from a source corroborates a crime, “it would be up to the county attorney to see what kind of witness Wilson would be.”

A spokeswoman at Maricopa County Superior Court said Judge Gary Donahoe, who issued the controversial late-night warrant, would not comment on the matter.

According to the report, the concerns Mesa had with the contractor included some of their employees bringing unauthorized people to work to help clean the buildings, of bringing their children to work, and the contractor’s employees going through trash or looking at documents in a secured building.

Mesa’s report further indicates that after concerns were raised last year about Management Cleaning Controls’ workers using false IDs to secure access into city buildings, the city combined the access badge with the identification card, to prevent misuse of city badges. All of the contractor’s workers had to collect their new badges in person and provide a government-issued identification and other verification documents.

“Mesa had concerns with MCC’s performance as a contractor on several levels. There were meetings, e-mails and cooperative efforts to resolve these concerns. There is no indication, however, that at any time prior to May 20, 2008, Mesa had information that an MCC employee used or attempted to use fake documents to obtain a City badge or access to Mesa facilities.”

City officials warned the contractor on May 21 to make sure no illegal workers were on their rolls and to make sure they were following the state’s E-Verify system. Wilson contacted the sheriff’s office the same day.

Mesa is implementing a worker verification program that will require more detailed information from city contractors about each of their workers. Also, Mayor Scott Smith announced in late November, that any contract worker requiring a security badge to access city building will have to show a federally or state-authorized identification card. Smith said at the time that the measures were taken to fill any gaps in preventing illegal immigrants from working in city buildings for private contractors.

Every time Mesa’s utility customers pay their bill, they have the option to send a little extra money as a donation. This year, the tough economic times have meant fewer dollars flowing in for charity.

The city program, called ABC: A Better Community, could do with more money to help local nonprofits including MARC Center and Mesa Boys & Girls Club, provide hundreds of those in need with food and shelter.

Residents who use the city’s utility services can go online to pay their bill and donate at www.mesaaz.gov/humansvc/abc.aspx. Those using the SurePay option to pay the bill can call (480) 644-2221 to add the donation amount.

Anyone else wishing to donate can do so, and get a tax deduction by sending a check to City of Mesa, noting ABC as the beneficiary. The address is: City of Mesa Customer Service, P.O. Box 1466, Mesa, AZ 85211-1466.

Information: (480) 644-5831 or lisa.wilson@mesaaz.gov

Source: Mesa

Plans to freeze merit pay for Mesa employees beginning January have been put on hold, after it was pointed out internally that the system would put some employees at a disadvantage.

The problem is that merit pay, as it works right now, is given depending on an individual’s yearly anniversary from the date of joining. That means, in this fiscal year, from July 2008 to June 2009, those who had joined between the months of July and December will get a merit pay and the ones who joined between January and June would have been left out, if the council had approved the freeze.

City Manager Chris Brady told the City Council in a meeting Thursday that to avoid that disparity, it would be best to continue with the merit pay for the rest of this fiscal year.

The city has saved money on account of lower fuel and commodity costs, Brady noted. Those savings are expected through the rest of the fiscal year and could help the city offset the merit pay costs.

In future, Brady said he plans to propose an annual employee review process, so that once the economy rebounds and the city is able to dole out merit pay, everyone benefits equally.

All city employees are taking a 2 percent pay cut to help offset the $62 million budget deficit.

The New Year will trigger a systemic shift from the old way of doing things in Mesa City Hall.

The City Council confirmed that inevitable shift Thursday morning, giving formal direction to the staff to move ahead with changes that include eliminating 343 full-time positions, consolidating several departments, altering the fire department’s response system and reducing library hours and after-school programs.

“We have no other choice,” said Mesa Mayor Scott Smith. “When you’re looking at $60 million of shortfall, you have to make changes.”

Smith emphasized that the approach to dealing with the $62 million shortfall over an 18-month period is to not “just slash and cut,” but to restructure departments in ways that better utilize the remaining staff and resources. He noted the fire department’s plan to send two instead of four officials in smaller trucks to respond to lower-level emergencies as a “smart” example of use of resources.

“There have been significant things done that will give returns tenfold in the long run,” Smith said after the meeting.

One possible change that’s still on the “think” mode, is whether to privatize security of city-owned buildings, such as City Hall. Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh has concerns about that move, which would cut another 43 city positions and save an estimated $500,000 in the next fiscal year.

“I would prefer people on board who know the mission of the city, and whose primary goal would be to work for the public,” Kavanaugh said.

City Manager Chris Brady said one option explored could be to use a combination of private and city employees, depending on the city building. A formal proposal on this issue will be presented to the council early next year.

Vice Mayor Kyle Jones connected the changes with their impact to city residents.

“The cuts, they’re going to hurt, they’re going to be felt, and, more so than ever before, the public is going to recognize the loss of those services,” Jones said, adding that he hoped some of these services would be restored soon.

Smith, meanwhile, said that the ultimate goal is that even when the economy is back on the uptick, the city shouldn’t go back to “the old way of doing things.”

“I don’t think that will work in the 21st century,” Smith added.

Kavanaugh reiterated his concern over reduced library hours and other cuts that impact people.

“With all the work that’s done, it’s still a very significant reduction in services across the board for a major American city and we need to be careful to avoid a situation where the services are reduced to such a point that it begins to affect property values in terms of why people would want to come and live here, why people would want to stay here, in terms of a city,” Kavanaugh said.

Unless the City Council members raise any significant concerns about any department changes or cuts, Thursday’s council meeting could wrap up a series of budget discussions, that could result in a final go-ahead to city management to cover a $62 million financial hole until at least June 2010.

The huge revenue downfall the city is experiencing in the wake of the economic downturn has had the city’s top officials scrambling to not just adjust to the low numbers in the near future, but to reorganize departments to deal with what’s being viewed as a “new economy.”

That means changing the way some departments have functioned to better use the available resources, City Manager Chris Brady has said.

It’s the era of cross-training employees that remain, outsourcing for certain services and cutting back on resident service programs and public spaces.

Nothing has been spared. Public safety, parks and recreation, libraries and the development services department are all making changes in their functioning.

Some of the changes are of concern to a few council members and will be discussed and monitored over time, Mayor Scott Smith said last week.

Among some of the issues raised inside City Hall are the changes and the loss of experienced staff in the planning, code compliance and building safety departments, the proposed outsourcing of municipal security, as well as some rumblings about the move to a four-day 10-hour work week, as compared to the current five-day, 8-hour system.

A few council members have raised issue with the staff over making sure customer service levels don’t drop.

It remains to be seen how many of these will be debated Thursday.

For a detailed list of department cuts, click here for a City of Mesa report

The council study session takes place Thurs, Dec 18, at the Council Chambers at 57 E. First Street. It can also be viewed live at www.mesachannel11.com