By LaTricia Woods, Public Information Officer, Maricopa

“No matter how big and powerful government gets, and the many services it provides, it can never take the place of volunteers.” ~ Ronald Reagan

This quote best conveys the need for volunteers in our society, especially for municipalities. Each year, cities are asked to do more – provide more services, add more programs – with the same or even diminished budgets. As populations continue to grow, the number of requests for services and programs becomes greater and the demand more urgent.

Cities look to volunteers to assist the municipality in numerous ways. From serving on citizen advisory boards, commissions and committees to staffing booths at special events and everything thing in between, volunteers share their time, expertise and resources to the benefit of the community at large.
In the city of Maricopa, volunteers have been vital to the organization meeting the needs of our fast-growing community. Between 2000 and 2010, Maricopa experienced an astounding 4,081 percent population increase. With that increase came an immediate ramp up of services and programs that not only made the community safer, but enhanced the quality of life for residents.

One of the city’s most successful volunteer programs is Volunteers in Police Service (VIPs). Since its inception in 2007, the program has grown from 12 volunteers to more than 100 and that number continues to rise. Volunteers assist in a variety of areas including victims’ assistance, administration and recruitment. They serve as members of the Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT), Citizens on Patrol and Park Rangers. As the largest VIPs organization in small cities throughout southern Arizona, Maricopa’s police volunteers have provided more than 19,500 hours of service in 2012 alone. While their service in 2012 saved the organization more than $400,000, the value of their contributions is priceless.

Although this is just one example of a successful city volunteer program, there are more throughout the organization. Each program and volunteer is greatly appreciated. Volunteers truly make Maricopa a great place to live, work and play.

By Steve Johnson, Bullhead City Public Information Officer

April in Bullhead City, hundreds of volunteers in dozens of organizations will greet and cater to thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts for the annual Bike Fest. The Laughlin River Run has been a Tri-State tradition for 31 years. For the past two years, southern California Harley Davidson dealers have hosted Bike Fest in Bullhead City’s Community Park. The tens of thousands of visitors who come to the area for this exciting event are welcomed by our Kiwanians, Rotarians, Soroptimists, Boys and Girls Club members, girls and boys scouts.

Recently, the city of Bullhead City created a central, online, interactive calendar where all local service groups and non-profit organizations can post events. BullheadCityEvents.com provides a “Suggest Event” button on the front page of the calendar that users click on to open the submission program. Users fill in the blanks, describe the event in their own words and submit the request. A notification is sent to several city staff, anyone of whom can approve and post the submission from their office, tablet or smartphone. BullheadCityEvents.com receives about 5,000 pageviews per month from some 1,500 Web visits. And, the popularity is growing! For April, nearly 30 events are posted. The events calendar also provides local businesses an opportunity to advertise, thus offsetting the annual hosting cost and making the calendar community funded. Bullhead City regularly promotes the events calendar with a link the front page of the city’s website and a billboard on its government channel TV4. The TV4 Billboard is another way Bullhead City promotes community events and bringing awareness to the many volunteer opportunities in our area.

By Patrick Brenner, Apache Junction Public Information Officer (PIO)

The spirit of volunteering is alive and well in Apache Junction well known as the “Home of the Superstitions.” In calendar year 2012 volunteers from the community assisted with many city departments and many served as members of city boards and commissions. Last year saw 1,407 community members volunteer a total of 38,073 hours with a contributed monetary value of $ 813,239.

Services utilizing volunteers include the Library, Parks and Recreation, Human Resources, Public Works and Public Safety. These included helping hands at Paws and Claws Animal Care Center, Investigations and Victim’s Assistance. Adopt-A-Highway folks helped keep public roads neat and tidy.

Perhaps most noteworthy, currently 34  Citizen Leadership Institute graduates now volunteer their time on city boards and commissions with 67 percent of all board members who volunteer, having graduated from the CLI.

Town of Queen Creek Geographic Information Systems Coordinator Shawny Ekadis knows where 90 percent of the streets in Queen Creek are. After 15 years with the town she says its second nature. “I look at them on a daily basis while addressing for the town and verifying locations from calls our office receives,” Ekadis said. But thoroughly knowing the town layout is just a fraction of the expertise Ekadis brings to her job with the town.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are designed to incorporate hardware, software and data in order to capture, manage, analyze and display data and trends in the form of maps, reports and charts. The information is used by the town in a wide variety of functions, including utilities, public safety, trash and recycling services as well as planning, zoning and other development resources.

Starting out as an intern with the town while working towards a bachelor’s in planning from Arizona State University, Ekadis worked on everything from an exotic animal ordinance to creating one of Queen Creek’s first zoning maps. Back then, she remembers the town as a much more rural community.

“It’s interesting looking back, there were not very many people and they had different concerns about the community’s growth then they do today,” Ekadis said. “Working in a small community you are able to do a number of different things and with the town’s growth you get a lot of opportunities to learn and work on projects you might not get to in a big city.”

Ekadis received her master’s degree in GIS from ASU in 2005 and began her current position as GIS coordinator in which she currently heads up addressing for the town, creates map products, conducts analysis of data and information for various departments and works with staff who collect GPS data for internal systems. She assisted in the creation of the town’s first Fire Department five years ago, and is now working closely with the department as they work to develop Queen Creek’s fire district.

“Shawny’s accurate mapping is absolutely vital to the town’s public safety efforts,” Queen Creek Mayor Gail Barney said. “Her work with the Fire Department is critical and gives the department the resources they need to accurately and quickly respond to emergencies. We look forward to seeing the outcome of the projects she is currently working on and know that they will be invaluable both internally for staff and for the public.”

Ekadis is currently working on developing a series of interactive maps for the town’s new website, which will debut later this spring, that highlight school districts, Shop Queen Creek member information and an application for parks and recreation facilities, making it easier for the public to find and make reservations. She is also working on a website feature that will be used internally to easily locate town-owned property and existing records for each one.

“Hopefully I’ve done a good job in taking information and painting a picture that gives people a better understanding of that information,” Ekadis said. “That artistic element and the opportunity to work with different people on different projects is what I love about my job.”

By Goodyear Mayor Georgia Lord

 
The Goodyear City Council is set to begin budget talks in April, an important time of year when we look at how to the city is going to spend taxpayer money and make the most of the funds we have available.

As we discuss how to spend those dollars and city departments submit their goals and needs for Council consideration, we plan to continue to follow the philosophy that has worked well for us in the past: Stay conservative and hold the line on spending.

The last five years have presented challenging financial times for families and businesses as well as the city and the state. But, as the country begins to emerge and recover from the economic downturn, we will continue to look for innovative ways to better position ourselves for continued growth and economic prosperity.

Our fiscal outlook is “cautiously optimistic” as reported to the City Council at the mid-year financial update in February. Revenue estimates are up for the third straight year.

We will have the opportunity to address some needs that have been on the radar for a while as well as a few amenities for the community using one-time funds – specifically construction sales tax and fund balance from this year that will help us maintain services and improve our roads such as Loma Linda and Goodyear Boulevard. We also will invest in our infrastructure when necessary.

Those forthcoming projects have been made possible in part by the city reorganizing and streamlining some of its internal operations. Some of these cost-cutting measures have included installing a new city-wide phone system and recycling wastewater to reduce watering costs for the grounds at the spring training facilities. These methods will help the city to save thousands of dollars and allow us to invest in other projects for the city.

Goodyear is continuing to grow, and we have seen more houses and commercial industry coming in over the past year, which is great news. The growth also comes with added responsibility to provide services.

We encourage residents to attend any of our Council meetings, especially throughout the budgeting process and visit www.goodyearaz.gov  so you know when those meetings are so you can come see how we wisely decide to spend your hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

The city of Kingman is readying to welcome a new employer: an assisted living project that will result in approximately 50 new jobs for the area. Check out this article from the Daily Miner for more on the project and a photo of Mayor Salem welcoming the organization to the community.

http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=55513

Tucson Water and utilities across Arizona and the nation are promoting “Fix a Leak Week,” March 18 through March 24, 2013, as a time to bring attention to the amount of water lost through minor household leaks. Water loss through leaks exceeds one trillion gallons annually in America.

Tucson Water’s “Fix a Leak Week” web page at www.tucsonaz.gov/water/fix-leak-week offers the “Homeowners’ Guide to Using Water Wisely” booklet free by mail and downloadable learning activities for children. The page also has links to online tools for measuring home water use and calculating the impact of drips and leaks, and to videos on making simple household repairs, thanks to the Scottsdale Water Resources Department.

Mayor Jonathan Rothschild will issued a proclamation at the March 19 meeting of the Mayor and Council that encourages residents and businesses to be water wise and monitor for possible water waste.

“Due to the conservation rate structure used by Tucson Water, the water billing portion of a customer’s utility statement will rise dramatically when a leaking toilet flapper or faucets is left unchecked for a period of time,” said Fernando Molina, Tucson Water Public Information Officer. “While we offer some resources, customers should consult experts at local plumbing supply and home improvement stores for guidance on repairs and the right tools for the job.”

Town of Gilbert Partners with Arizona State University to Revitalize Heritage District
ASU Masters of Real Estate Development students are partnering with the Town of Gilbert to revitalize the Heritage District. View video here: http://youtu.be/pVYtAgsXb-U

Glendale residents can follow the city of Glendale’s budget through a comprehensive tool, Follow Your Money, available on the website.  This easy-to-use budget tool enhances transparency and allows users to access the city’s expense and revenue financial data to see clearly what’s coming in and what’s going out.

In 2010, the Arizona State Legislature passed Arizona Revised Statute (A.R.S.) §41-725, which established online comprehensive financial reporting requirements for Arizona and its local municipalities.  Although Glendale was in compliance with the statute through the publishing of its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report on the city website, the city’s Information Technology and Finance departments took the statute requirements for the state as a guide and created Follow Your Money to further promote transparency.  The first phase of the tool was released to the public July 2012.

“With Follow Your Money, we have attempted to make a very complex financial system extremely easy for anyone to use and understand,” stated Diana Bundschuh, deputy chief information technology officer. “We wanted something that people would use, that provided full transparency to the public and the ability for them to see every detail of the city’s spending.”

The first phase of Follow Your Money provided users the ability to easily search and download the current year’s expenditure data as well as the previous three fiscal years. Searches can be conducted by fund, department and citywide spending along with vendor spending.  The tool provides a graph that shows total expenditures of the search and users may select how much data to view at once and how it is sorted, alphabetically or by amount.  Users can also access spending on a specific date or payments to specific vendors; and Follow Your Money is updated every 24 hours.

Well done, Glendale!

Text from Bloomberg website:

• Best Place to Raise Kids in Arizona: Oro Valley
• Population: 40,422
• GreatSchools city score: 9
• Median family income: $83,409
• Housing costs as a percentage of income: 19.1%
• County unemployment rate: 7.1%
• Nearby city: Tucson

This Arizona burg isn’t just for snowbirds escaping the cold North—it’s become a major base for biotech firms, fueled by research at nearby Tucson’s University of Arizona and the town’s own Innovation Park.

http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/2012-12-17/the-best-places-to-raise-kids-2013#slide4

Congrats, Oro Valley!