Sonoran News.com

Fenger Pointing

Becky Fenger | July 30, 2008

Ideas that make sense

The New York Times took a break from stroking their love child Barack Obama long enough to report on a legal policy that many think needs changing. “The United States is the only country in the world to take the position that some police misconduct must automatically result in the suppression of physical evidence,” the Times reports.

The “exclusionary rule” that automatically tosses evidence against a suspect is applied whether the misconduct is very minor or far more serious, notwithstanding the gravity of the crime or the totality of the evidence. Everywhere else in the world, it is left to the discretion of the trial judge to decide whether the police were derelict enough to warrant jettisoning their collected evidence. Why should criminals go free if an officer has botched it, some are asking.

The idea of transparency in government is a stellar one. This is the practice of letting ordinary citizens in on the inner workings of government by publicizing in a timely fashion where the money goes. Anyone with Internet access should be able to immediately see how and where government agencies are doling out tax money.

That’s why kudos go to CD 5 candidate David Schweikert for printing where property taxes went right on homeowners’ property bills when he was Maricopa County Treasurer. It irritated the hell out of school districts, who are always complaining of getting short shrift, but Schweikert’s graphics that broke out the spending showed otherwise. Of course school officials didn’t like the idea of showing what a budget override actually cost property owners. Some districts even have three bonds going on at once!

Spending too much money by politicians, unfortunately, is not in and of itself a deal-breaker for voters. With transparency, however, every single check the government writes is turned into a potential earmark and voters can decide accordingly. At a candidate’s forum sponsored by the Sunnyslope Alliance, Marilyn Fox (running for Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in District 3) touted her support of transparency. She wants the minutes of their meetings immediately posted on the Web. Plus, she has signed the Goldwater Institute’s “Open Government Pledge.” (Check it out at www.goldwaterinstitute.org.)

Transparency is non-partisan. It will bring more candidates to the political arena than Clean Elections ever will. Transparency will expose waste and corruption. The press loves transparency. Maybe that is why twelve states in the last fifteen months have been able to pass some sort or transparency legislation. Transparency is good.

 PRESS CONFERENCE

 Monday, August 11, 2008 
  Thomas J. Pappas Elementary School
355 N 5^th Ave, Phoenix AZ

Marilyn Fox, District 3 Candidate for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, will hold a Press Conference today at the locked and guarded gate of the closed Thomas J. Pappas Elementary School.

 Fox, who taught math before entering the business world, says that “the Supervisors have squandered the public’s goodwill and wasted literally millions of dollars in a politically-motivated attack against County Schools Superintendent Sandra Dowling,” and points to “a troubling pattern of fiscal mismanagement and the pursuit of political agendas rather than acting in good faith to deliver needed services for Maricopa County residents.” 

As for Pappas, Fox is concerned that the Sequoia charter school attempting to replicate the Pappas formula when school opens on Monday will fail, leaving “the County’s most vulnerable children without the support they need to overcome their homeless status and succeed.” 

She says that at a minimum the County should allow Sequoia’s new “Children First Academy” to operate out of the former Pappas Elementary site taken over by the County.  “It’s ridiculous that this building now holds only an armed guard and the Regional School District’s property rather than five hundred happy children busy learning.” 

Fox Says Dowling Wronged, Questions Supervisors’ Actions

 Press Conference
County Courthouse
125 W. Washington, Phoenix

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

  Marilyn Fox, running for Supervisor in County District 3, charges that there never was a valid case against Maricopa County School Superintendent Sandra Dowling, and that the investigation, indictments and ongoing legal wrangling “demonstrate beyond doubt that the Board of Supervisors is out of control.  They’ve abused their authority and the public trust with activities fueled by political agendas instead of a desire to serve the public.

 She will hold a Press Conference Tuesday at approximately 10:00am at the Old County Courthouse, 125 W Washington, immediately following Dowling’s sentencing for the misdemeanor charge of hiring a relative nearly ten years ago.

 Fox, a retired businesswoman, is challenging eleven year incumbent and current Board of Supervisors Chairman Andy Kunasek.  She says that the Dowling case shatters the Supervisors’ claim that they cannot exert any control over the actions of other elected County officials such as the Sheriff or Attorney, as several citizen groups have requested.

 Fox says, “The Supervisors say the Sheriff and the County Attorney are independent, elected officials with their own budgets, yet when they decided that they no longer wanted to fund the Pappas schools they went after Dowling – an independent, elected official with her own budget.  The courts have been proven this prosecution did nothing but waste money that could have educated Pappas students for at least another year.

 “So” she says, “the multi-million dollar question is, do the Supervisors "manage" the budget and actions of all County officials?   Or do they manage only those they want to manipulate for a desired political outcome?  They need to level with County residents and tell us the truth.”