Tempe Chamber Releases Ballot & Candidate Endorsements

10/10/2012 By Leave a Comment

The Tempe Chamber is pleased to annouce its endorsements for the Nov. 6, 2012 elections. After diligent research, fact-finding and candidate interviews, the following endorsements have been made, each which the chamber believes will have the most positive impact on business.

“These candidates best understand the challenges of our member businesses,” said Mary Ann Miller, president and CEO of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce. “We believe they will represent us well as we continue to strengthen the economy.”

To learn who and what we’ve endorsed, and why, please visit http://tempeaz.usachamber.com/blog/?p=1342

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A New Election Pledge

08/02/2012 By 3 Comments

In just a few days, early voting for the primary elections will begin. While we can see a blessed end to the incessant politicking, right now it’s just gearing up to hit a crescendo in the fall. Come November, I will no longer come home to nine voicemail messages from robodials (do people actually listen to those things?), I won’t have to wonder how I got on an e-mail list for someone running in Sierra Vista, and my mailbox will once again be blissfully empty.

And I’m a political junkie.

Trust me, there are few people who enjoy a political and philosophical discussion more than I do. Pick a side, and I’ll take the opposite side, and through the discussion we’ll be able to flesh out our respective opinions and identify holes in arguments. But this constant attack mode is exhausting and drags everyone down in the mud. Is it any wonder that voter turnout is pitifully low?

And then there are my FaceBook “friends.” Good Lord, folks, do you teach your kids to talk that way? If you want to attach something that you support, good for you, but nothing hateful, please.

A lot has been made of the “pledge” to not raise taxes driven by Grover Norquist. I propose a new pledge for both voters and candidates:

• I pledge to believe that those who disagree with me are good people.
• I pledge to understand that someone who disagrees with me is not out to get me.
• I pledge not to judge soundbites, but to determine the full context of a statement.
• I pledge to acknowledge that just because you don’t support one candidate (or congressman or president) it doesn’t mean you like his/her opponent/predecessor.
• I pledge to show respect to the office and whoever holds it, even though I may be working the other side of an issue.
• I pledge not to say anything about a candidate that I wouldn’t want said about my mother or child.
• I pledge not to use “the other candidate started it” as an excuse for my own behavior.
• I pledge not to do anything I berated another administration or candidate for doing.
• I pledge to recognize the difference between flip-flopping and having a reasoned change of opinion based on information and experience.
• I pledge to acknowledge that compromise does not mean having everyone agree with you, and that voting with another party takes courage and is not caving.
• I pledge to realize that legislation is often so complex that there are multiple understandable reasons to oppose it.
• I pledge to prove wrong the people who say that going negative works.

I’ll be the first to sign.

Mary Ann Miller
President/CEO, Tempe Chamber of Commerce

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Tempe Public Library – An Ongoing Relationship

05/02/2012 By Leave a Comment

The Tempe public library is a treasure of the community which has undergone drastic cuts during the most recent budget crisis.  For many residents, the library is the primary interaction they have with city services, and the primary place they go for books and internet access.

My interest in the Tempe library went from user to supporter many years ago, more than I care to remember…  My sister had a birthday coming up and I could not think of a present to give her.  For reasons that are now lost to memory, I decided to contact the Tempe library to see if I could donate a series of books in her name.  Indeed, the library was happy to take my money so they could purchase a series of books inscribed with a dedication to her.  Birthday success.

A few years later, when I was an instructional designer, I realized patrons were beginning to come to the library to use the internet, and to use email.  My desire to support library services meshed well with my skill set, and I spent over 150 hours developing an elearning program for the Tempe library patrons on how to use web based email.  In fact, the training program was so successful the library used it for years.

In recent years, city services at all levels have been cut due to budget constraints.  The library has been no exception.  Tempe library hours were cut from 70.6 hours a week to 56 hours a week.  The library has also had to cut nearly $400,000 from its yearly budget.  This is a significant amount.  I was the only person to come to the city council and request the library continue its longer weekend hours.

Several years ago Amazon.com introduced the Kindle, an e-reader.  While it initially did not allow for ebook library check-outs (it does now), the Barnes and Noble Nook did.  I purchased a Nook and began the process of checking ebooks out of from the Tempe library (in partnership with the Phoenix Digital Library).  Much to my surprise, the ebook selection was horrible!  It was a very small selection and, in some instances, there were just a few ebooks available for checkout while 40 (or more) patrons were on a waiting list.

This was the case even as Amazon.com announced that it sold more ebooks then paper books.  I did a public records request and found the library spent $242,000 a year on physical book acquisition, and $30,000 on its entire digital library.  This $30,000 included downloadable books on tape, movies, music, and ebooks!  I once again emailed city council and library staff.  This time I asked them to adjust their ratios of expenditures to better reflect the reality of the changing marketplace.

In the end, my email to city staff cost me several hundred dollars as I decided to take matters into my own hands and bought the complete works of Kurt Vonnegut on ebook for the library.

My point is this.  Throughout this city council campaign you will hear every candidate talk…and talk…and talk.  They will talk about how they support police and fire.  How they support neighborhoods.  How they support parks and the library.  Talk is cheap.  The real question is this, what candidate has a (documented) history of support for these services?  I am that candidate.

* * *

You can support the Tempe library at http://www.tempefriends.org/

Filed Under: - Tempe Political, Kolby Granville, Tempe City Council Race Tagged With: , , ,

Candidate Arts Forum provides an opportunity to hear views on arts and culture in Tempe

01/06/2012 By Leave a Comment

December 31, 2011

The Friends of Tempe Center for the Arts along with other arts organizations are hosting a candidate forum for Tempe City Council candidates. We believe that promoting arts and culture cuts across all boundaries including political boundaries. Whether it’s at the Federal, state or local level, it is incumbent upon us to advocate for the arts.
Our citizens voted to tax themselves to build the TCA; our leaders in the past created two arts ordinances; and we are a community that prides itself in having a wonderful quality of life. We have an opportunity to ask those individuals who are running for office to give us their opinions and views about the arts and culture in Tempe, and what they envision for the future of the arts in our community.
A diverse group of individuals crafted a number of questions to be asked of the mayoral and council candidates on January 11th in the Tempe City Council Chambers. From 5:00 to 6:00 we will ask questions of the three candidates who are running for mayor, then from 6:00 to 7:00 we will ask the same questions to the five council candidates.
Our questions are narrow in scope, therefore you will have a good sense of where each of the candidates stand on issues concerning Tempe’s cultural climate. We hope that you will be able to attend, but if not, you will be able to view it via Channel 11 or on your computer.

Barb Carter, board member Friends of Tempe Center for the Arts

Filed Under: - Tempe Political, Politics Tagged With: ,