The Need For Transparency – Buz Blog

“The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” – Patrick Henry   

It’s a long way to the November elections. On a national level we should all be prepared for a lot of political invective and mudslinging. Voters should not judge politicians by their words, but by their actions. For incumbents, or individuals who have held prior offices, that’s easier, but for first time candidates, voters need to do some homework. We need to look at their past jobs and their performance in those jobs. But what is necessary for both the seasoned politician and the novice candidate is transparency.

On a local level, prospective office holders, for a variety of offices, are gathering signatures to get on the ballot. County Supervisor elections will be held in August and we should start closely looking at the candidates now. Transparency is just as important on the local level as it is for state and federal office holders.

There is a move to recall Prescott Mayor Phil Goode and replace him with Stan Goligoski. The reasons to replace Mayor Goode seem to be contrived at best, but Stan should be lauded for his transparency in producing a video of those on the Recall Committee. Each committee member speaks on the video about themselves and their reasons for wanting to recall the mayor.

After watching the video, one can only come to the conclusion the Goligoski must be politically naive. In the most conservative area in the state, some of the Recall Committee members are drag show promoters and hosts for Queer Proms at Launch Pad, one has bright blue hair and is complaining that Mayor Goode ignores the LBGTQ community.

One is a local school teacher, Whitney Williams, (no relation), who is Vice President of “House of Hues”, whose website describes her as “an avid queer rights advocate” see  https://www.houseofhues.org/about . Rosemary Dixon states that she is a retired university lecturer and a “progressive”. One would think that this video would be counter productive to anyone who would want to seek political office in Yavapai County, Arizona, but the readers can decide for themselves by watching the video HERE.

It would appear that Goligoski might have a close relationship with former Prescott Mayor Greg Mengarelli. If so, is Mengarelli pushing the recall as a response to losing the mayoral election to Phil Goode? This year Greg Mengarelli is gathering signatures to run for County Supervisor in District 1. If he makes it on the ballot, Mengarelli needs to display a lot more transparency then he did the last time he ran for mayor.

Browsing through articles on that contest, transparency would require that Greg Mengarelli answer a few questions. The old adage is that, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” To clear up questions about the appearance of conflicts of interest, Greg should come forward with responses that would clear the air. During that election season, in an article in the Daily Courier, the question was asked why Mengarelli was spending $100,000 in campaign money for a $9,000 a year job? A good follow up question is who were the contributors of that money? Mengarelli’s wife, Sheila, is supposedly a wealthy relator. If she contributed a large amount to her husband’s campaign, that would answer the second question. However, if money was contributed by investors, developers and/or speculators, that would be a prima facia conflict of interest. Either way, the voters should know.

It was assumed by his opponents that Mengarelli catered to those who wanted unrestrained building and growth in Prescott. Many of those same people would believe that Mengarelli’s run for County Supervisor is an attempt to push the unlimited growth movement county wide. Greg could negate the look of a conflict of interest by listing his campaign contributors and the amount they donated.

The last appearance of a conflict is Greg Mengarelli’s job at the Prescott Frontier Days, (The Rodeo). Greg needs to answer the questions during the mayoral election that popped up and were raised by Tom Cantlon. While he was mayor, how was it that Greg landed a “new” job that was not open to other applicants? Mengarelli didn’t disclose his contract with the Rodeo during the mayoral election. He should reveal that contract for the public now. It might even be required by law. These disclosures would clear the way for a clean and fair election in the Supervisor election in District 1.