••
Athletes impress
PAGE
DIY Chinese
29
PAGE
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
FREE
($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY)
| TheMesaTribune.com
35
Sunday, March 8. 2020
Mesa Council must document expenses
INSIDE
This Week
BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
COMMUNITY ...... 19 Cancer victims take their ordeal on stage..
BUSINESS ............. 24 Mesa chef opens a first for Arizona.
A
new, more stringent policy requires Mesa’s mayor and city council members to document their public expense accounts. Council members’ expense money includes Community Partnership and discretionary funds they receive to benefit the city or residents in some manner. The move toward better documenting their spending comes after the city noticed that oth-
er municipalities had better accounting regulations for such discretionary funds and that’s the city’s policy hasn’t been updated since 2012, Deputy City Manager Scott Butler said. But the new procedures also follow a public records request filed by the Goldwater Institute, a conservative watchdog think tank that often sues cities to correct practices it considers unwise or an infringement on personal liberty. “We have filed some records requests and are continuing to review the situation,’’ Jennifer Tiedemann, the institute’s deputy director
of communications, wrote in an email when asked by the Tribune about requests made to Mesa. City Councilman Jeremy Whittaker, a potential candidate for mayor, said he works closely with the Goldwater Institute. He also made contributions to organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Public Citizen, making his politics difficult to categorize. “The City of Mesa Council is not above the law. The embezzlement of taxpayer dollars
Mesa putting Mesa’s new top cop more money in the classroom
see EXPENSES page 4
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AND HOWARD FISCHER Mesa Tribune
GET OUT ..............
32
The bird’s not the only word at this fest.
COMMUNITY ................ 19 BUSINESS ....................... 24 OPINION ........................ 27 SPORTS ........................... 29 GETOUT.......................... 32 CLASSIFIED .................... 36
Zone
2
M
esa Public Schools spent more money in the classroom last year but not as much as the state’s largest district did five years ago – partly because of above-average transportation costs. That assessment in the state Auditor General’s annual review of Arizona public school spending falls in line with a similar trend in most school districts statewide. Overall, the data presented by the AG shows MPS compares favorably with the majority of districts in most measures of school spending.
see SPENDING page 6
Mesa Police Chief Ken Cost, flanked by Mayor John Giles, left, and City Manager Chris Brady lost the “interim” in his title last week as he was formally named the head of the city’s Police Department - an announcement that thrilled the rank and file, as explained on page 3. (Chris Mortenson/Tribune Staff Photographer)
The latest breaking news and top local stories in Mesa!
TheMesaTribune.com