[0:11] This year's breakfast and briefing will be staged differently than in the case in the past. This year, we have brought in

[0:19] gravy gamage to keep the mayor on task.

[0:25] Keep his mind from wondering. Keep us from telling us too many times about building a better mesa.

[0:37] Where am I here? Okay.

[0:43] The business community and this chamber are proud to have this mayor and city staff recognize for the job they are doing

[0:49] In these difficult times, please join me in recognizing the following elected city officials.

[0:58] Vice Mayor Kyle Jones, Councilman Scott Summers, Councilmember Deena Higgins, Councilman

[1:05] Alex Fincher, Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh, Councilman Dave Richards.

[1:10] Also

[1:20] with us this morning, Mesa City Manager Chris Brady, sorry Chris,

[1:33] Fountain Hills Mayor Jay Schlum, Chandler Mayor Boyd Dunn,

[1:38] Queen Creek Mayor Art Sanders, former Mesa Mayor Gino Hawker,

[1:43] and the following legislators, the Honorable Cecilash,

[1:47] the Honorable Gary Pierce, the Honorable Steve Court,

[1:50] The Honorable Rich Crandal and Chamber City Council Member Jack Sellers.

[2:08] Grady Gammage is a senior fellow at ASU's Morrison Institute.

[2:13] His work there focuses on urban growth and development, quality of life, and local economic issues.

[2:20] He's also a practicing attorney.

[2:22] He's practice limited to land use planning, zoning, and state trust land.

[2:27] And he's also a graduate of Occidental College.

[2:32] It seems to me that my life is surrounded by graduates of Occidental College, the President

[2:40] of the United States.

[2:44] A dropout.

[2:46] A dropout.

[2:47] Okay.

[2:50] The format today will be a discussion between Mr. Damage and Mayor Smith from that discussion.

[2:56] If there are any in the audience would like to pose a question.

[3:01] There are cards available on tables, please notify a staff member.

[3:06] They will collect the cards and bring them to the front.

[3:09] Now, Mr. Damage, Mayor Smith, the floor is yours.

[3:21] So it's a pleasure to see you all here this morning.

[3:25] I'm struck by the graphic difference between about the state of the city and Mesa, and

[3:33] what we saw on television last night about the state of the nation in the United States.

[3:38] And now, first of all, we're not in an elaborate chamber.

[3:42] We don't have the sergeant of arms at the door announcing Mr. Baker, you know, all that stuff.

[3:50] And I don't anticipate that we're going to have that phenomenon where when the mayor

[3:55] says something, half the room stands up and the other half kind of looks around deciding

[4:00] do we have to stand or the cameras on us or not.

[4:04] But it seems to me this is just a little snapshot of kind of the difference between the dysfunctionality

[4:13] of our politics at the national level.

[4:15] And the fact that at the local level, things are kind of working, okay?

[4:20] I mean, you know, times are a little tough and everybody's tightening their belt and their problems and issues.

[4:26] But somehow, local politics seems to involve people who get along and compromise with one another and tackle issues and actually resolve things and move on.

[4:39] Now, some of that may be because in Arizona, local politics is non-parkism.

[4:42] Some of that may be because of the people we elect and the fact that we see them all

[4:46] the time at events like this and we know what's going on.

[4:49] And some of it is because of people like our honored guest this morning, Mayor Smith.

[4:58] This is the end of his sort of first full year was last year in office.

[5:04] President Obama's now had a year in office.

[5:08] And my sense is that despite all the problems we've seen there's an awful lot to be excited

[5:15] about and happy about in the city of Mason.

[5:19] So with that, let me bring up the man who has been referred to as the Bon Jovi of local

[5:24] politics in Arizona, Mayor Scott Smith of the city of Mason.

[5:40] And I mean, here's another contrast, instead of that formal podium speaking, we're doing

[5:45] like the tonight show. Have any of you heard of the tonight show? Yeah. After we're done here,

[5:53] you and I are moving to the 1205 times lot every night. I don't know if you were aware of that.

[5:57] Now, Mayor, you can sit back. You don't have to, you know. I'm doing this so I can stay awake.

[6:02] I'm a little bit tired this morning. Just done a few things this week. So what we're going to talk

[6:07] about that. We're going to talk about all kinds of things. And let's remind everyone what it is that

[6:12] But you did this week that was so exciting and watch a video for just a minute before

[6:16] we start asking questions.

[6:18] On behalf of the Ricketts family and the Chicago Cubs, we're very excited to say that

[6:23] we have reached an understanding with the city of Mesa that will give us a framework to

[6:29] go forward to work on keeping the Cubs in Arizona and the Cactus League.

[6:48] We've been in Arizona for 57 years and we look forward to the next 57 years.

[6:54] Because the Cubs are a home run for our economy with millions of dollars boosting Arizona.

[7:03] The attendance at the Cubs training station, the Cubs attendance at the Cubs spring training

[7:09] games is the highest of any team in the cactus league.

[7:14] The drawing power of the team is one reason why Florida has been trying so hard to learn

[7:20] the Cubs away from Arizona.

[7:22] It's important to note that this will be a partnership between the Cubs and the City of

[7:28] Mesa.

[7:29] The Cubs ownership has stepped up to the plate to be an active partner and developer of

[7:36] this project.

[7:37] The best part is that none, not a dime, of the funding will come out of our state's general

[7:43] fund.

[7:43] This is one thing that everyone, whether you're Republican or whether you're Democrat or an

[7:48] independent, can agree on.

[7:50] spring training is not the same without the Chicago Cubs, in the immortal words of Harry

[7:56] Kerry.

[7:57] Let me hear you, Cub fans.

[8:00] Okay.

[8:00] We decided we didn't need to run a video of the America because we got him sitting here,

[8:03] right?

[8:04] All right.

[8:05] So, it's a home run.

[8:06] We're done.

[8:07] We've scored.

[8:08] This is over.

[8:10] Is that right?

[8:14] Phase one is over.

[8:16] Phase one was a significant.

[8:23] I'm on here.

[8:26] Now I can't hear me.

[8:27] I'll just put it right there.

[8:30] Phase 1 was very difficult, and I will tell you that but for the efforts of many, many people

[8:37] including Chris Brady and Debbie Spinner and their staff, we wouldn't be here, but it

[8:42] was huge to get where we are.

[8:44] We needed to set the stage, we needed to get over this first time, which was to really fight

[8:52] off a very serious challenge from Naples, Florida.

[8:57] You know, a lot of people say, well, do you think the Cubs or any sports team are leveraging

[9:02] you?

[9:03] And I sort of look at them like, duh, of course they aren't, that's part of the game.

[9:08] But I will say this, there was never one time when the Cubs showed up to us and said, hey,

[9:13] here's the latest bid for Naples, can you top that?

[9:16] That was not at all how it happened.

[9:18] They were very gentlemanly about it, and we knew what we needed to do, and was very simple

[9:23] that we needed to perform, and we need to give them the opportunity that they desired.

[9:28] And one of the main reasons was because that's what we knew Haple's was going to do.

[9:33] Naples has a very strong significant group who was making a very serious challenge, and

[9:40] if you saw their press conference after we finished last night, they are not giving up.

[9:45] They indicated very, very strongly that they are still in the game, and they are waiting

[9:51] for us to hiccup.

[9:52] So to get past that first stage, though, was incredible.

[9:56] So what's stages two and three?

[9:58] Stage two and three are now, it's really in the hands

[10:00] of the legislature.

[10:03] The majority of fun that's supposed

[10:04] to be reassuring or scary.

[10:08] I'm sorry, I know some of you are out there.

[10:10] I see Celeste.

[10:13] Cecilash guaranteed me last night that it would get done.

[10:17] At least that's how I heard it.

[10:20] You know, I will say this, we cannot take anything for granted.

[10:24] There is no doubt that we have broad-based support to keep the Cubs in Arizona.

[10:30] And that's the easy part, because everyone recognizes the importance of the Cubs to

[10:36] this area.

[10:37] You know, one thing that's really not known is that actually Mesa gets a minority of the

[10:41] tourist dollars that stay here with the Cubs.

[10:44] We're going to change that.

[10:44] That's part of the initiative that we have with the

[10:47] Regal League of the West.

[10:48] But the Cubs are very, very generous in how they spread the wealth.

[10:51] They spread a lot of money to Scottsdale, Tim P. Chandler,

[10:57] Phoenix, even founders, and oh, by the way, before we get going,

[11:00] I just want to point out how honored I am to have my fellow mayor.

[11:06] You go off again, there we go.

[11:08] You know, Mershlam, Mayor Dunn, and Mayor Sanders are part of a group of

[11:12] East Valley mayors that, you know, they're really second to none.

[11:16] And most of the other mayors would have been here.

[11:17] They called me.

[11:18] They either had conflicts or something like that.

[11:20] But this is truly amazing and unique to have them here.

[11:23] And so please, I thank them for showing their support.

[11:28] We really work well together here to look out

[11:30] for regional concerns and regional efforts.

[11:34] I'm really so thank you so very much.

[11:37] But the Cubs, the Cubs spread the well.

[11:39] We have to get to the legislature.

[11:40] So you thank them, but it's the legislators that you need.

[11:43] It's the legislature we need to suck up to.

[11:45] I'm thanking them.

[11:46] I'm sucking up the legislators.

[11:48] And what happens is that what we need to do is that we need to keep people focused on

[11:52] the details of what we need, because the majority of this stadium is going to be paid

[11:57] through tourist taxes.

[11:59] The same mechanism that's been used to build stadiums in Glendale, Good Year, Cardinal Stadium,

[12:03] those things.

[12:04] So we're not asking for something new.

[12:06] We're just asking to expand on that which has been needed.

[12:08] But let me ask you a question.

[12:09] If I read the story in the morning paper correctly, it sounded like a lot of the money in

[12:13] and Naples is private money.

[12:15] And all of the money in Arizona is public money.

[12:18] Is that right?

[12:19] Well, yes and no.

[12:21] First of all, Naples started out,

[12:24] presenting themselves, and how they got in the door

[12:25] was to present themselves as this is all privately financed.

[12:28] Well, as we go down the line every day,

[12:31] there's more and more tax money being included.

[12:33] And Naples deal looks an awful lot like our deal,

[12:35] with a little bit more private money than we would have.

[12:39] The other thing is that ours is not all public money.

[12:41] The Chicago Cubs are making a significant investment in this.

[12:45] And that's what makes ours different.

[12:47] They are making an upfront investment in property and they're buying the land for the

[12:51] project.

[12:51] They will be significant investors in the private investment and they will control the private

[12:56] investment around the stadium.

[12:58] And they will take on them.

[13:02] There.

[13:04] Yeah, watch out.

[13:05] They're going to hit the hand.

[13:06] Financial obligations and other things that other teams simply don't have.

[13:10] So the Chicago Cubs will have a considerable and significant private investment in this deal.

[13:17] Well, just keep this one here in case.

[13:18] Yeah, just in case.

[13:21] Okay, so I buy all of that, but let me ask you the blunt question.

[13:25] Given the state of public finance and Arizona, both state level and local level,

[13:31] is this really the time to be spending any public money on baseball?

[13:34] Well, would I have chosen a better time to do it?

[13:36] Sure.

[13:37] That's not the hand we were dealt.

[13:39] You know, whether it's good or bad, this is what we have right now.

[13:42] I would have preferred to have had this in the time of an abound time that may have been

[13:46] easier.

[13:47] But the fact is, is that we all know that our finances stink.

[13:50] We all know that there is, that right now it seems like the wrong time, but remember, we're

[13:56] making a generational investment.

[13:57] The Cubs have been in Mesa for 57 years.

[14:00] We're now on what our third generation of Cubs fans that are coming to Mesa, and the

[14:05] the Ricketts families made it very clear that they want to be here another 3 or 4 or 5 generations.

[14:10] So we're making an investment that's going to be for 20, 30, 50 years.

[14:16] So the timing, yeah, it sounds like it's a bad time, but when you look at the investment we're making initially,

[14:22] and we're not cutting a check for that, that much right now and getting nothing in return,

[14:27] we'll reap the benefits just as we have for the last 15 years, for many, many years coming back.

[14:32] And the other thing is that in these times, we're not looking to add or looking to build

[14:39] something that hopefully will generate economic activity.

[14:42] The one thing we know from the Cubs is that we know who they bring in.

[14:46] We know they bring in tens of thousands of fans.

[14:48] We know where they stay, we know what they spend.

[14:50] The amount of money that they bring into our economy is in the tens of millions of dollars,

[14:54] over a hundred million dollars based on a recent study.

[14:57] We do know that if they go to Florida that

[15:00] That money will go with them. So in many ways, this is an economic preservation. So the question is, how can you not, how can you afford to build and make this investment right now? How can you not make this investment right now? Let me ask you one question about you just made the point that the reason you make the investment is because of the tax benefits, the tourism benefits, the business opportunity it comes here. Those sound like what we're now learning to call indirect benefits. Does the city north decision that came down have any impact?

[15:29] on this deal?

[15:31] Well, I think the city north has an impact on every deal.

[15:34] We spent four or five, six months negotiating this deal.

[15:38] Obviously, the city north was in the background, but we didn't have a decision.

[15:44] We've now had a decision for what, four days.

[15:46] So we spent four months negotiating, we have four days to look at it.

[15:49] As we go forward with the definitive agreement, we certainly will take into account what came

[15:55] out of the city north decision.

[15:56] I'm confident that with the direct investment that the Cubs are making, with the ongoing

[16:01] obligations that the Cubs have, financial obligations, that this deal will pass muster.

[16:06] And we will probably have to tweak it a little bit, or if we not, we'll choose to tweak

[16:10] it just to make sure that it falls within the guidelines of the city north.

[16:13] I think you're right, and I think the other lesson is that the thing you need is really smart

[16:19] lawyers who understand the city north decision to help you tweak it.

[16:25] You're going to go out on the corner and look for a car wreck next and get them there.

[16:29] The economy has been bad. We're all chasing deals these days.

[16:35] I know we didn't pay him anything.

[16:39] Last question on the cubs. When are we going to know a location for the new complex?

[16:43] You know, we want to get to that as quickly as possible because the third step, which

[16:49] we haven't talked about, is that this deal needs to go before Mesa voters.

[16:53] And that'll happen in November.

[16:55] I'm really confident that Mesa citizens understand the importance of the Cubs.

[17:01] I know they're connected with the Cubs, and I know we have broad community support, but

[17:06] we certainly want to take them something tangible.

[17:08] And in order to have something tangible, we have to have a site.

[17:11] We have to have drawings.

[17:13] We have to have plans.

[17:14] So everybody is, the Cubs and all the landowners

[17:17] are very incentivized to get a deal done quickly.

[17:21] Whether that'll be in the next two weeks or two months,

[17:25] I'm confident that we'll have something

[17:27] probably by the first of summer.

[17:29] Okay, well, let's shift gears now.

[17:32] I mean, it's unbelievably exciting

[17:33] that you get to do this the day after the announcement.

[17:37] I, that's amazing timing.

[17:39] I have to say, and makes this a trend.

[17:41] Yeah, no doubt. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

[17:45] And then we'll end on that mode, no.

[17:48] So I want you to tackle health care next.

[17:52] Let's go back and talk about the last year in the city of Mace.

[17:56] You outlined a year ago, a number of initiatives,

[18:00] a bunch of things, benchmarks.

[18:03] You wanted to aim out and try to accomplish.

[18:05] It's been a tricky year.

[18:07] There's been good, and there's been bad.

[18:09] Let's talk about the good first.

[18:11] What do you see as the high points of what you were able to accomplish?

[18:14] Oh, boy, where do I begin?

[18:16] Okay, well the deal is, we only have until, and I have other questions.

[18:21] Oh, okay.

[18:22] I will tell you this, you know, for all of the meetings we've had about how bad our economy is,

[18:28] about the financial struggles we have are enduring and continue to endure as a city,

[18:34] it seems like I go to a ribbon cutting for each one of those.

[18:36] you know, we have many highlights. We have exciting things going on out of Boeing that they will make some announcements in the near future about some exciting additional economic activity out there.

[18:49] You know, every day, every week it seems that I go to a banner health grand opening or groundbreaking.

[18:55] Just in the last year we've opened the Carden Children's Center. We've opened a new

[19:02] emergency room out at Banner Baywood.

[19:06] And we've dedicated an expansion to the Banner Health.

[19:11] We've opened up the administrative center in the former Mesa Lutheran hospital.

[19:18] What did you call it?

[19:19] Banner Mesa hospital.

[19:20] They're on Brown and Country Club.

[19:25] You know, there's been a lot of good things going on.

[19:27] We still have thriving educational facilities, such as AT Still.

[19:32] I mean, if you drive by AT Still, you want to see a real problem.

[19:35] go by and check out AT still out there on record and baseline on mid day and see the challenge

[19:42] they have in parking all the cars. I mean it's you know every time I go by there it's

[19:47] an unbelievable sight because I love it because they've run out of parking spots. And that's

[19:51] not because they built parking lots that were too small. That's because they're experiencing

[19:57] success that goes beyond even their estimations. By the way we're working with AT still.

[20:05] If you're

[20:05] does have a medical school, a dental school, a top-notch program. It's a beautiful facility

[20:10] and the program is world-class. As a matter of fact, one of the things we're working on

[20:15] is to work further with 80s still to expand their medical education offerings and working

[20:20] with the city as part of our heat initiative. And so there's a lot of exciting things that

[20:25] are going on in the city.

[20:26] What remind me of what the heat initiative is? You're trying to make it hotter in Mason?

[20:29] That, well, you know, in a certain way, yeah.

[20:32] Heat was the acronym, HEAT, Health Education,

[20:35] Aerospace and Tourism.

[20:37] The idea that we have strengths.

[20:39] A lot of people look at what Mesa has,

[20:41] and what any city does, and you concentrate

[20:42] on where you lack.

[20:45] You know, I sort of look at that's the wrong way

[20:46] of looking at things.

[20:47] Let's look at where we're strong, let's build upon those.

[20:50] We've talked about Banner, we've talked about ET still,

[20:52] we've talked about some of the other things.

[20:53] The Arizona Regional Medical Center,

[20:55] which is in the old Mesa General,

[20:57] that has been wildly successful over the last year,

[20:59] the new Mountain Vista.

[21:00] There's been well over a billion dollars of investment,

[21:03] for example, in health care.

[21:05] Education, we have our Mesa Public Schools

[21:09] and Gilbert Schools that cover a big chunk of the city.

[21:12] Second to none, and on K-12.

[21:15] Mesa Community College, which is a standard bearer

[21:17] in quality education, ASU Polytechnic.

[21:20] And yesterday, Dr. Crow had a very good meeting

[21:23] out of the Polytechnic where he reaffirmed issues commitment.

[21:26] And I've been meeting with Dr. Crow to make sure that ASU Polytechnic will move forward

[21:30] in meeting its mission, which is to serve as an economic driver in East Mason in the

[21:36] Gateway area.

[21:37] But we want more.

[21:38] We've talked about AT Still.

[21:40] We're working on a lot of different areas to expand our higher education offerings.

[21:46] ASU, for example, we've been talking very, very seriously about positioning one of the

[21:51] the ASU, what do you call ASU light or bachelor programs or the new colleges at ASU program in

[21:58] Mesa, focusing on the downtown area, thinking that's a great place for higher education.

[22:02] We're talking to private colleges.

[22:04] We're talking to private medical schools where there's a lot of talks going on that weren't

[22:08] going on a year ago.

[22:09] And that's exciting.

[22:10] And then of course tourism between Gaylord and the Cubs, the Cubs are very much a part of

[22:15] the tourism.

[22:17] Let's talk about Gaylord and the area around Mesa Gameway Airport for a moment.

[22:23] Lots of excitement.

[22:24] Lots of us were very excited about all of that.

[22:27] Seems to have gone kind of quiet for a while.

[22:29] What do you think the status is at this point?

[22:31] Well, as we all know, the economy has hit certain segments of industries harder than others.

[22:40] And certainly, construction and residential development has been hit hardest of all in Arizona.

[22:44] on it. The other one other segment that has been hit very

[22:48] hard is business travel and business conventions. Gaylord and DMB thrive on those two areas that

[22:54] have been hit the hardest. Both companies are very strong financially. They are committed

[23:00] to the mace approving grounds and to the Gaylord hotel out there. We just need the economy

[23:06] to cooperate. I think what you'll see is the timelines will be extended. Construction

[23:13] will not start when we thought it would, when it will start?

[23:17] You know, I don't know.

[23:19] Business travel and business convention has to recover,

[23:22] which it already has sort of flattened out

[23:24] in talking to Gaylord.

[23:26] They're just looking for that uptick,

[23:27] and that may not be for a year or two.

[23:30] And then there has to be the financial markets

[23:32] and the residential markets that give DMB,

[23:40] and that gives DMB the incentive to move forward

[23:44] and the ability to move forward with their development.

[23:45] So it's still going to happen, it's just a matter of when.

[23:49] Let's talk about some of the city's internal challenges in terms of the budget and jobs and those kinds of things.

[23:59] You went through some tough things this last year. Is it done? Are things stabilized financially going forward for the city of Mesa?

[24:08] I'd like to say that yes it is, but we have not yet hit bottom. And that's the disturbing thing.

[24:13] I want to give you a little bit of context as to where we are financially.

[24:20] 1999 and October, okay, for those of you who haven't pulled out your calculators, that's

[24:24] 10 years ago.

[24:25] Little more 10 years ago.

[24:27] City of Mesa had about 390,000 residents.

[24:32] During that month, businesses in Mesa reported $576 million in taxable activity.

[24:39] In other words, that's houses that were built and retail sales and everything that we could

[24:43] collect a sales tax on 576 million. Okay, let's leap forward 10 years to October 2009.

[24:51] Mace's population is now 465,000. Our taxable activities 575 million. That's not a,

[25:02] that's, that's the, those are raw numbers that's not adjusted for inflation. So with 80, 90,000 more

[25:09] For people, over 10 years with inflation, even at one 2%, we basically, on raw dollars

[25:16] are flat, realistically, we're down millions and millions of dollars over a 10-year period.

[25:21] So we're having to serve many more people on fewer dollars.

[25:25] Our sales tax collections over the last two years are down 20%.

[25:30] That's 30 million dollars that we've pulled out of our ability to serve more people.

[25:36] It is challenging.

[25:37] Now, and it continues to be challenging.

[25:40] We thought we had hit bottom.

[25:42] Last month, we were still down 8% over last year.

[25:45] And last year, as I said, was down 12% over the year before.

[25:48] Now, one thing we have done is we've tried to find some sort

[25:52] of silver lining in this very, very dark cloud.

[25:55] And I think the city council, the city staff working together,

[25:59] we have approached our financial problems in a way

[26:03] that I'm proud of.

[26:05] Because while many other cities are scrambling or they delayed some of their efforts, we looked

[26:11] very early on and came up with a program that set in motion some reorganizations, some

[26:18] restructurings, some savings and efficiencies that help our helping us get through this

[26:25] even further downtown down turn without a lot of drastic changes.

[26:31] For the next six months, we're projected to be down about $12 million in our revenue from what we had projected.

[26:38] That's the bad news. The good news is, with all these changes, the savings that we've experienced are $13 million more than we thought they would be.

[26:46] So we'll get through this next six months of this fiscal year with actually a little bit of a surplus.

[26:52] And that's due to the efforts of a lot of people who have done a lot of things.

[26:56] And in many areas, I don't believe our service has diminished significantly.

[27:00] In other areas, we're on fumes.

[27:03] In our public safety, our police officers, those, they're being very, very creative, but

[27:10] they're stretched.

[27:11] And these are areas that we don't experience every day.

[27:16] I hope you never have to call 911 for a medical emergency.

[27:19] I hope you don't ever get involved with the police because you've been the victim of a crime.

[27:24] The challenge in city services is that those are the areas that you will really see the personal impact and those areas you don't see it until all of a sudden you're waiting for that that police officer to get there and it's going to be a few more minutes than it was or instead of four minutes on a fire and with paramedics it might be six or seven minutes the difference between life and death those are the things that we struggle with as a city as you talk to your fellow mayors in the valley how would you compare me

[27:53] in this situation. Have you been better off, worse off, bigger challenges, same challenges?

[27:59] You know, it's interesting that when we first started out, it seemed like Mesa got hit

[28:03] before other cities did. I know we talked with Mayor Dunn when we were seeing really almost

[28:08] double-digit decreases in sales tax, Chandler was flat. They were not experiencing those things.

[28:16] Now we're all in the same pot. I mean, this economic downturn is broad-based and I don't

[28:22] I don't think there's any city that can claim to be better or worse.

[28:25] We're all in a bad situation as far as revenue streams.

[28:29] Things such as, you know, the channel and fashion mall and

[28:33] other malls that used to be just guaranteed stable sources are struggling.

[28:39] We find that those people who don't have jobs and there's way too many of us.

[28:43] Obviously, don't have the money to spend, but those of you who do have jobs aren't spending it.

[28:47] But the consumer confidence is so low that we're just not spending money on the things

[28:52] that generate tax revenue.

[28:55] Let's talk about sort of Macy's perception in the larger world of American cities.

[29:02] My sense is in the course of the past year, Macy's gotten quite a bit of publicity.

[29:06] You were in the Wall Street Journal a couple of times.

[29:10] There's been a number of meetings and forums.

[29:13] you and I were together at one in Denver about different American cities.

[29:19] I think there was a time when people outside of Arizona in particular were shocked

[29:22] when they heard how many people Mesa had.

[29:25] Has that changed? Is there a building recognition that we're sitting in a

[29:29] city larger than Minneapolis or people starting to understand that?

[29:32] Well, they're still surprised when they hear how many people we have.

[29:35] I'm very active in the U.S. Conference of Mayors and it's now become the

[29:40] big joke about Mesa, you know, the biggest city you've never heard of. They've heard of us now.

[29:44] And I actually even have those cities, you know, from Minneapolis and Atlanta and cities who

[29:49] the city proper has fewer residents than Mesa does, who recognize us. And they also recognize us

[29:56] because they're putting two and two together. Now this is where things like the Cubs come in.

[30:00] They've heard of Mesa. They can't remember where they've heard of it, but they've heard of us. The events that have happened between President Obama visiting here and like you said, mentioned in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. And sometimes those articles didn't start off great. For example, the Wall Street Journal article started off at how bad things were in Mesa ended up very, very positive because it talked about how we've grabbed the problem. We've embraced the challenges and we've worked to solve them. So those things get noticed. It was amazing how

[30:29] when we were in the Wall Street Journal a couple three weeks ago, how many emails I got

[30:34] from fellow mayors and people from around the country saying, my gosh, I read about

[30:38] Mesa.

[30:39] So I don't think we're going to be any nut on any most boring list in the current year.

[30:44] It's been great to get that kind of recognition.

[30:48] What we need to do is we need to make something out of it.

[30:50] I mean, it's nice that people notice you, but it doesn't get you anywhere.

[30:54] What we need to do is take the fact that they notice us and then go to the next step.

[30:59] and turn that into some real benefits and some real activity.

[31:04] Well, let's talk about that for a minute.

[31:05] I do want to go to some of the questions we got from the audience,

[31:07] but before I do that, let's talk about the future a little bit

[31:09] and how you do that and how you begin to turn that into positive things.

[31:14] What do you see as the big initiatives going forward?

[31:17] Are we still concentrating on the HET on kind of the community engagement stuff?

[31:24] Are there new initiatives that you see in the next year getting launched?

[31:31] What's the future trajectory?

[31:33] Well, we are always going to concentrate on the HAT because that's where our strengths

[31:38] are.

[31:38] We'll expand out a little bit, but there's so much work to be done in health education,

[31:42] aerospace, and tourism.

[31:43] I hope we don't deviate from those things.

[31:45] That doesn't mean that we'll be exclusive of other areas, for example, solar and those

[31:50] things.

[31:50] obviously we're a player in those as with that's what the whole region is working on.

[31:55] We are part of this region and I think what you find out is that as the region

[32:00] prosperous we will prosper. We need our neighboring cities and we work closely

[32:04] with them and you know we'll grab on new opportunities and all those fit in with

[32:09] those things. So we're going to tweak what we do. We're going to we're going to

[32:13] maybe expand a little bit. A couple of things that we're looking at is you know

[32:19] What we noticed is that we've lost that sense of community.

[32:22] This has always been a city that was really engaged, they volunteered.

[32:28] And we still do that, but not at the levels that we can do that.

[32:31] And one of the things we've done in the city and one of the things we will launch is a more

[32:36] formalized volunteerism program.

[32:38] We have signed up with other large cities in the cities of service program, where we will

[32:42] set up a service advisory board.

[32:45] and we will truly try to bring our very active

[32:49] and engaged faith community together

[32:51] with other community groups that have always been active

[32:55] and drawing on the resources that the city has

[32:57] to create a more vibrant and more well organized service

[33:03] culture and activities.

[33:05] That's one of the things we're gonna concentrate on.

[33:07] But the other things are we're going to really,

[33:08] we've got a lot of work to do in the HAT.

[33:11] We've got a lot of work to do in education

[33:13] and there's exciting things going on.

[33:14] Today we have a Jonathan and Andrew, right?

[33:18] From the National League of Cities and, for example,

[33:22] this is a great example of some of the issues we're taking on.

[33:26] Mesa, along with our co-partners in this endeavor,

[33:30] in the Mesa Public Schools and Mesa Community College,

[33:33] are down on a short list for the Clip Grant.

[33:35] A Clip Grant is actually sponsored by the National League of Cities

[33:39] and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

[33:42] And the purpose of this grant, which will be a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant,

[33:47] will be to seek out and identify those people at risk that are not moving on to higher

[33:54] education.

[33:55] For whatever reason, we have in Arizona and even in Mesa a very large proportion of our

[34:01] youth that are not taking advantage of higher education, and that is the death knell for

[34:06] economic growth.

[34:07] We cannot grow without people going on.

[34:10] You know, we struggle to get a lot of our youth through high school.

[34:13] Getting through high school doesn't make it anymore.

[34:15] We have to get them going on to higher education.

[34:18] And so working in conjunction with MPS and MCC, we are involved in a very active process

[34:27] of going after this clip grant.

[34:30] The city of Phoenix is also involved.

[34:32] And that's something very interesting.

[34:34] One of the reasons why we're two of seven communities around the country who are in line

[34:39] for these grants. And the interesting thing is that one of the reasons why they chose Phoenix

[34:43] and Mesa is because we offer very different dynamics. Mesa has a one large school district

[34:49] which covers the vast majority of our city, Gilbert Public Schools covers those areas south of

[34:56] the U.S. 60 and we have a large two campus community college and so that's an interesting dynamic

[35:04] for a city our size. Phoenix on the other hand has I don't know how many elementary school

[35:09] districts, they don't have the same community college, Phoenix College is very centralized,

[35:13] and they have one or two or three union high school districts that cover their city.

[35:17] A very different dynamic of how you bring the resources together to make things happen.

[35:21] I can tell you that I've been extremely pleased and proud of our institutions that have worked

[35:28] well together for years to make this happen.

[35:32] And let me ask you about this emphasis on higher education.

[35:35] Is that related to this power road knowledge corridor thing that I think it's certainly

[35:40] as a part of it.

[35:41] As you see power road develop, it will become an economic driver, sort of a boulevard

[35:47] of achievement.

[35:48] It has that potential and that's based on not only the airport but on the education components

[35:53] that exist in the power knowledge corridor.

[35:55] We're working in conjunction with the town of Gilbert since for a long, what about five

[36:00] six miles, we share a border along Power Road with Gilbert to emphasize the educational

[36:06] research activities that exist.

[36:08] We presented this last year.

[36:10] We talked about MCC Red Mountain, the Mesa Public Schools.

[36:13] There we go.

[36:14] Center for Advanced Learning there at Brown Road, the AT Still which we've talked about, EVIT,

[36:22] which is starting a new campus out of Gateway Area.

[36:25] And of course, the issue, Polytechnic, the University of North Dakota which has a vibrant

[36:30] at Geiway, Chandler-Vilber College,

[36:32] Kenymean College, and then, of course,

[36:34] the latest edition, which we're all excited about,

[36:36] which is the MD Anderson Cancer Center

[36:39] on the Geiway campus, which most people don't realize,

[36:44] MD Anderson is a venture of the University of Texas,

[36:50] and it will very much be research

[36:51] and patient service oriented on the Geiway campus.

[36:55] Geiway Hospital, of course, is right there on Higley in the 60,

[36:57] We share a border between Gilbert and us and we're working very closely with the town of Gilbert to maximize those opportunities.

[37:05] Okay, I want to go to some of the questions we got from people in the audience and some of these were collected before today and some of them were turned in this morning.

[37:14] Before I do that just so we don't forget, I want to give another round of applause to the sponsors of today's event who made this possible and helped us put it on.

[37:23] so thank you to those sponsors.

[37:27] And if I could, as part of that,

[37:29] you know, we ribbed the Hilton,

[37:31] and I'm not going to make any cracks about corn dogs this morning,

[37:33] because they're great.

[37:35] But the Hilton, Gary, you and your staff,

[37:38] you do such a great job.

[37:40] There's so many community events that go on at this hotel,

[37:43] and I will tell you that the Hilton always steps up

[37:46] and they are a true community player.

[37:48] Thank you so very much for the great job you guys do.

[37:55] Here's one of the questions from the audience that I would like to hear your take on.

[38:01] There's a lot of discussion now about whether or not the way we fund government in Arizona,

[38:06] both state government and local government works given the magnitude of the problems we

[38:10] have.

[38:11] What's your take on should we be thinking about a different mix of revenue sources in a

[38:17] different way of funding government?

[38:19] Well, I think we have to look at a different way.

[38:22] You know, it's not whether it works because we still collect tax revenue.

[38:26] The question is whether there's a match between the economic activity that happens in

[38:30] a city, the services that are provided by a city, and the tax system that is supposed to

[38:37] meet those two.

[38:38] You know, we talked about differences between 1999 and 2009 and the difference in economic

[38:43] activity.

[38:44] You know, it's really interesting over the last two or three years, retail sales have been

[38:47] literally in the whole. We've really struggled, especially at Christmas time,

[38:52] except for in one area, Internet sales. Internet sales which virtually did not

[38:57] exist in 1999, for example, are a huge part of our economy now. City of

[39:02] Mesa, State of Arizona, virtually zero dollars from Internet sales. You know

[39:08] that because that's one reason why people go to the Internet. Those Internet sales

[39:13] last Christmas were up double digit. Last two Christmas have increased at a

[39:16] double the rate. There's nothing to say that that is going to change. We also have moved

[39:21] over the last 50, 60 years from an economy that's based on the transfer of goods, which are

[39:27] all taxable under our system, to a service-based economy. And it's not that I'm advocating one

[39:32] or another. The fact is that our tax system, as it currently exists, does not match the

[39:38] economic activity. You know, one of the big debates in Mesa, and I'm not proposing this, but

[39:42] I'm just telling you one of the mismatches is that we have, for example, we provide services

[39:48] to people who own property but who do not pay taxes in Mesa.

[39:52] Because unless you're coming into town and you're buying a lot of things, if you want

[39:57] a house and you're only here four or five months out of the year, you don't pay for our

[40:01] services.

[40:02] And yet we provide police and fire services 12 months out of the year.

[40:05] So that's just a disconnect.

[40:07] We've got to find a way to connect economic activity public services with the revenue

[40:13] strength.

[40:13] Okay, here's a related question, which is Elliott Pollock did a report for the House

[40:20] leadership about, primarily for the speaker, about Arizona's tools, got a hate looking

[40:26] in myself on this monitor, it's like spooky.

[40:29] That's okay because I hate looking at you too.

[40:36] about the tools that Arizona might need to have to compete in terms of a

[40:42] tranting major employers. And the speakers actually graphed it all on there's

[40:46] beginning to be some discussion about that. What about that? Do we have sufficient

[40:51] tools or do we need additional tools? No, you know, I think and this is this is

[40:55] perhaps the danger in one of the byproducts or collateral damage of a

[41:00] city north this is. We have concentrated so long on competing Mesa versus

[41:07] Chandler versus Fountain Hills and you know what nobody cares. Probably one of

[41:14] the dumbest things we've done in Arizona is compete between cities when our

[41:17] real competition is New Mexico and Alabama and India and China and we see this

[41:24] every day you know we talk about the aerospace the aerospace institute

[41:28] research institute which is something which we're really excited about and our aerospace industry

[41:34] and how we can support that. Well, we had something in a little story to tell us who our competition

[41:41] is and what we are lacking. At the Paris Air Show, which is where a lot of aeronautical activity

[41:48] happens and a lot of things are sold and money is invested, the state of Alabama, the state of

[42:00] zero. That's our competition. We have one of our strengths. Arizona historically has been in

[42:07] the top five for aeronautical activity. Aerospace. It's a huge driver of our economy. We're getting

[42:14] out gunned. We're getting outplayed. And I have even gotten into, you know, the incentives, which

[42:20] are a dirty word, they're good incentives, they're bad incentives. Good incentives come with increase

[42:26] in economic activity.

[42:28] I will defend Gaylord incentives all day long

[42:31] because that's all new money to our economy.

[42:34] You have $750 million in initial investment

[42:36] and then everybody who comes to Gaylord

[42:38] is out of state money that's bringing into our economy.

[42:41] Aerospace is all new money.

[42:43] We don't sell many attack helicopters for use in Arizona.

[42:47] At least I hope we don't.

[42:49] You know, MD helicopters sell very few.

[42:51] It's all out of state.

[42:52] That's the kind of economic development we need to be fostering.

[42:55] We need tools. We don't have them. We are at a huge disadvantage with our other states.

[43:01] Alabama, Georgia, Texas are absolutely clean our clock when it comes to that.

[43:06] And these are states that if you remember 10, 20, 30 years ago,

[43:11] you talked about the South and they were backwater states.

[43:14] They were states that didn't have it together. They were states that are struggling.

[43:17] In many ways, they have run past us. We need more tools in the toolbox.

[43:21] What about small businesses?

[43:22] What can Mesa do to help small businesses thrive in Mesa?

[43:25] Well, the best thing we can do, and I think one of the, once again, one of the other parts of the silver lining is small businesses thrive when they're left alone, when they're enabled, when they're facilitated, they suffer when they're regulated.

[43:39] What we've really worked on trying to do, both in our systems and in our culture in the city, is to turn from a regulatory into a facilitory attitude.

[43:48] The idea is that we will say yes until we're forced to say no, rather than start out saying no until you prove that we can say yes.

[43:56] I'll give you a great example of how I think we're making process, process, progress.

[44:01] We went and opened a new plant for the waxy, for the waxy janitorial supply.

[44:09] And all of you know waxy, you just don't realize it.

[44:12] And now from now on, when you walk into a restroom in any public facility, especially

[44:16] you men, I guarantee you you will see the Waxi name.

[44:20] Just look down.

[44:23] Waxi opened up 105,000 square foot facility in Mesa, 80 employees.

[44:29] They moved from another city.

[44:31] They had property in another city in the valley.

[44:35] And they moved from that city because the regulatory environment was so much they said they gave up, they still own that property.

[44:45] They moved to Mesa and the president came up and said, I can't tell you how amazing it's been to work with Mesa.

[44:50] You guys have helped us, you facilitated us, it's a beautiful facility.

[44:54] One of the first silver leads certified buildings in the city.

[44:58] Great, great, great thing, we have a-

[45:00] SDI, the auto parts who moved their manufacturing facilities from California here and raved about our city staff. We still have work to do. We know that, but we're getting there. We're changing. And that's a real compliment to, once again, Chris Brady, his staff, to our council, who we are all in lockstep about this, about what environment we try to create to facilitate. And so that's one of our main initiatives. We started out talking about baseball. Let me ask you one more baseball question that we got from the audience, which is, you think there's any prospect

[45:29] perspective, getting a second team attracted to Mesa.

[45:34] And specifically, the question is to play in Fitch Park.

[45:38] Well, I hope they play in Fitch Park and ho-ho comment everything.

[45:41] Contrary to what the newspaper said, talked about those prospects being,

[45:45] I think the word was laughable, not that I care about what the newspaper says.

[45:52] I will tell you that it is not laughable, it will be difficult,

[45:55] but our intention is, and not only our attention,

[46:00] but our objective is that when we move into the new,

[46:02] move the Cubs into their new facility,

[46:04] that we will have a team to backfill.

[46:07] Whole common fits are not substandard facilities.

[46:10] They're great facilities.

[46:11] They, for many teams, would be a giant step up.

[46:15] The Cubs are not moving into a new facility

[46:17] because they don't like what we have right now.

[46:20] They're moving in because they've outgrown

[46:21] what we have now.

[46:23] We have more economic opportunity

[46:24] that we can create through a new facility

[46:26] that we can ever create at Holcomb.

[46:29] We are limited with the Cubs there.

[46:31] And we can easily fix the deficiencies

[46:33] that Fitch and Holcomb have.

[46:35] And there are teams out there

[46:37] that would be more than willing

[46:39] to certainly explore the possibility

[46:41] of moving in there.

[46:42] I can't say who those are or what they are,

[46:44] but I will tell you that that is one of our initiatives

[46:47] and we have made some initial outreach and context.

[46:51] All right. Well, we're coming near the end of this

[46:53] And I think we've got to thoroughly an additional announcement this morning.

[46:59] So Mayor, if you want to return for a moment on the subject of higher education.

[47:03] Well, you know, we've talked about how higher education is a great driver.

[47:09] And it's one of our main initiatives this year, not this year, but any year and every year.

[47:13] And it's something we'll never, ever quit on because I don't think you can never be fully, fully

[47:18] satisfied with what you have because opportunity, that means you'd be limiting opportunity.

[47:22] We're not going to limit opportunity in Mesa, and so higher education, which we believe

[47:28] is a primary driver of all other opportunities that we have, having an educated workforce

[47:34] being able to give that workforce the opportunities they have that go hand in hand.

[47:38] And so we will always, always have that as a main priority, and that will always be part

[47:45] of the heat, even if we got to go down and make it eat, or yet, or just eat.

[47:50] education will always be at the forefront because it's one of the things that

[47:53] is made that has made the that has made Mesa great and taken us to where we are

[47:59] and now we just need to expand a little bit and go further so I would like to

[48:04] thank you as we wrap up for for this opportunity I'd like to apologize to if we

[48:09] board you to death I'm sorry you know you talk about how half the people stand up

[48:13] and half the people remain seating usually when I speak they have to stand up

[48:17] their leg fell up to sleep and so they have to shake it out and the other half are already

[48:21] asleep so thank you so very much for being with us today.

Mayor Breakfast 2010

Agenda

Transcript