News Title Goes Here8
July 26, 2021
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Over the last few months, the Mesa Police Association has been meeting with Mayor Giles in a effort to close the gap in funding and personnel shortages within the police department.
From the very first regularly scheduled meeting we were told there were no secret silos of money hidden and City leadership was eager to work with us to take care of our overworked and understaffed police department.
Our needs, which ultimately directly affect the community needs, were pushed off month after month. A deadline was finally set as we could not keep promising our members a timeline and break it time and time again.
During that time the City released the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) which confirmed our suspicions that the financial picture was far from doomed.
As every city employee, including public safety, went without merits or only given a percentage of their well earned merit, City Management built up the Enterprise Fund and Reserve Fund. This was done as utility rates rose yet costs to the city declined, construction permits and sales taxes far exceeded predictions and our population has grown to almost half a million (that we know of per the census).
Millions upon millions upon millions have been saved up, spent, then saved again for various City led projects throughout Mesa. Not much of it went to the hard working employees who desperately need it, doing far more with less.
Well, we can’t keep doing this. The MPA is asking for your help to help yourselves and the great community we risk everything for.
More information will be added to keepmesasafe.com as the days go by. City Council will be voting on Monday 02-26-2018 to begin conversations with ASU. A project expected to cost the citizens of Mesa tens of millions of dollars. Money that was refused to us to keep each other and the community safe.
It is very clear that certain City leaders are willing to gamble the lives of public safety personnel in order to build legacy projects.
We will need your support and your family’s support and participation in the next week to show our leaders that they work for the people.
Please pledge your time and energy into helping us keep Mesa safe!