Report on the Panel Meeting on San Tan Valley Incorporation

Dear Readers,

Last Saturday morning I went to a panel discussion on the possibility of San Tan Valley incorporation.

Factual Report.

It happened at the Encanterra Country Club on Combs Road from 9 to 11 last Saturday morning.

On the panel was Bryan Martyn, the Pinal County supervisor of district 2, the town manager of Florence, Arizona, um… I think a Queen Creek government guy and a Maricopa city government guy…

I’d say there were about 300 people there.

The whole meeting consisted of people writing down questions on index cards and giving them to a moderator, who would read them out loud, and then one of the panel members would respond. But Bryan Martyn ended up talking most of the time.

My feelings about the meeting, and about other similar meetings.

I went in to the meeting this morning thinking, “No, I’d rather not incorporate,” and I left there thinking, “No, I’d still rather not incorporate.” But even though it didn’t change my views, I’m glad I went.

I really want to start going to more town hall meetings, Home Owner’s Association meetings, political meetings, and etc., because… I don’t know why. Partly because going to government meetings is free entertainment and free intellectual stimulation. And it’s nice to be around people, particularly the type of people who go to government meetings.

I do feel kind of powerless at those meetings, though. I sit in the audience and stay quiet and the important people up on the stage talk and talk and talk, and they have very good public speaking skills. And then the important people go into executive session. The important people close their doors, the public is refused entrance, and the important people end up making all the decisions.

I know I live in a representative democracy, and I know my vote and my opinion count, but I still feel powerless sometimes.

One time when I felt the most powerless was in 2007, when I went to a student government meeting at Northern Arizona University. I was trying to get the powers that be to stop the construction of a $60,000,000 health and wellness complex, using a new student fee to pay for it. From the meeting I got the impression that it was already a done deal, and they weren’t really interested in hearing my opinion.

After the meeting I remember talking to one of the ladies who was dressed up really nice and seemed to be in charge of things. (If I remember correctly, she was a speaker in the student government meeting who said that most of the student survey results had come in and it was looking like the student body was in favor of the Health and Wellness Center being built.)

I asked the lady, as she was on her way out of the meeting, “Do you have any suggestions for how I can stop this building from being built?”

She gave me a really dirty look and said, “Did you fill out the survey?”

I said, “Yeah.”

She kind of shrugged, and looked away, or looked at her watch, or started walking away, and I said, “… so… I guess that’s all I can do?”

And she nodded and walked away. Or maybe she said something condescending like, “Well, yes, little college student, if you filled out the little survey that you got in your student email, then we already heard your voice.”

Of course I was asking the wrong person for advice on how to stop the building. That would be like asking Barack Obama, “Do you have any ideas about how we can defeat you in the 2012 elections?”

I’m still kind of upset about that whole new fee-funded building on NAU. I wrote a letter to the editor a while back about it. Last time I was in Flagstaff I saw them working on the building.

The process for getting the building built and imposing a new student fee was messed up.

They, the proponents of the new building and fee, set up a booth and handed out surveys at the recreation center, where the students (mostly athletes and Greek-life types) are more likely to support it. Would they have been as successful if they set up the booth in the liberal arts building, a building typically populated by non-athletic people? Or would they have been as successful in the Business building, where students tend to lean to the right? Probably not. And so the proponents of the new Health and Wellness building were not looking for a genuine representation of the NAU students- they were looking for a certain type of college student to get support from.

And the survey didn't get much publicity. It was in an email, and a lot of students just delete emails like that.

And the rhetoric on the survey was atrocious. It showed all these wonderful pictures of beautiful people working out. It showed rows of weightlifiting equipment and stuff, and the survey asked questions like, “Don’t you think it’s important to be healthy?” and “Would you be more likely to exercise if you had a state-of-the-art sports/exercise facility right on campus?” and “Do you think that staying in shape is part of a good education?” And “Did you know that people who routinely work out get better grades" (See, you can find statisitics to back up anything you want) and then at the end of the survey they were like, “Oh, by the way, there’s going to be this tiny student fee to pay for the new Health and Wellness Complex. It will be $250 per student per semester for the next 30 years, and even if you go to school at an NAU campus in Yuma, and so would never use the darn facility, you'll still have to help pay for it... but don’t worry about those little details because the new building is going to be so awesome! Look at these pictures of the cool Health and Wellness Center that the University in Las Vegas has! We need one too!”

Back to the way I felt about that meeting at NAU- I felt as though I was a lowly college student. I had no connections. All I had was an opinion about fiscal conservativism, and the well-dressed woman had all the king's horses and all the king's men.

And when I think about the injustice that is the new Health and Wellness Center at NAU, righteous indignation swells within me. And to get along, I have to put my faith in the justice that will be served, and the mercy that will be extended, when Jesus gets back.

The NAU students who come after me will not know about the fight I waged. They will not know that I gave some of my time and effort to try to save them some money. And saving them money is saving them power and freedom.

But a lot of students don’t see things that way. A lot of them have rich parents, and a lot of them don’t really care about how expensive tuition is, and a lot of them are stoned.

Back to my thoughts on the San Tan Valley meeting...

it was nice to see my fellow citizens and to see all those people act so civilly. They were all polite and respectful and mature- what a stark contrast it was to my middle school drama classroom!

I just really want to emphasize that it’s nice to see people who disagree be nice to each other, and it’s nice to see so many people who have an interest in their government, and who want to have a say in how it gets run, because they realize that the government derives its power from the consent of the governed.

Increasing Sparkle

I guess I feel like going to meetings and voting and such is a civic duty, and because I want to help America sparkle.

See, America isn't sparkling very much right now, and it should sparkle more. America's sparkle was at 67 % when Bush was in office, and now our sparkle is down to 49%. So if we want to get our sparkle up to at least 80%, then we all need to do our part.

The Neon Force That Beckons Me

There’s some kind of force that’s leading me into politics. It’s becoming a passion or an obsession, and I don’t know if it’s healthy or not.

But back to reporting on the panel meeting…

It was held from 9-11 in the Encanterra Country Club Event Center, which was like a big fancy ball room. I mean this place was really fancy. Really nice-looking expensive chairs, and beautiful light fixtures. I kind of liked it, but I also don’t like that type of place very much because I feel out of place.

And there were no children anywhere.

I went with my daughter, and it was hard for me to concentrate because I was worried about her fussing the whole time. I actually had to leave halfway through the meeting.

Um... sorry I'm not a very good reporter. I kind of drifted around and stuff... but I learned some interesting stuff about how San Tan Valley got its name, and how some of the boundaries were determined, and I heard about some of the complications surrounding the possible annexation of the Ironwood Banner Hospital by the Town of Queen Creek... it was educational.

At least, I felt more educated after I left. As to whether or not the meeting was really educational, who can say?

The actual arguments about possible San Tan Valley incorporation

One of the great questions from the audience was, "I'm retired, and I don't really care about schools, roads, libraries or any services that a city offers. Why should I vote for incorporation?"

And Bryan Martyn answered something like, "Well, frankly, it sounds like you shouldn't vote for it."

It all comes down to what kind of services people want from their government. If the people really want more matching road signs, more sidewalks, a library, a city pool, more parks, some public art, and more government workers who don't work very much but get paid a lot, and they are willing to pay for that stuff through more taxes, (or, maybe more accurately, are willing to force other people to pay for that stuff) then yeah, I guess they should vote yes on incorporation. But, if you'd like more freedom and less government, then vote no on San Tan Valley incorporation.

I feel like repeating my most powerful argument against incorporation- we can always do it later. But once we incorporate, we can never unincorporate.

Bottom line, I'll be voting no on San Tan Valley incorporation, and you should too.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa