February Meeting

Mesa Grande Community Alliance General Meeting
Last Tuesday of the Month – February 28, 2006

Co-Chair Tanya Collins welcomed everyone and introduced Nicole Tankersly with the Mesa Police Dept’s Crime Prevention Unit. She was alone this evening because the CAT/Bike Officers were involved in a case they have been working on.

She brought videos taken in the Bait Cars purchased by the City to catch automobile thieves. She wanted us to see the behaviors of people stealing cars. As we watched we could see that they were nervous, but they very methodically looked everywhere in the car for whatever they could find.

The Bait Cars were bought with a grant from the Arizona Auto Authority and installed with video and other equipment that can be operated remotely. They can stall the car, lock and unlock the doors, and videotape occupants. Mesa is the most successful of any city in the Valley at using bait cars. In fact, the equipment malfunctioned on a Bait Car used by Phoenix and the thieves were able to steal the whole thing…they found it stripped…at a cost of $40,000+!

20% of cars that are stolen have the keys inside their cars. One enterprising couple of thieves got the remote control to the garage from a car parked in the driveway, opened the garage door, found the keys in the car in the garage that operated both cars and drove off with BOTH vehicles!

80% of thefts are directly traced back to methamphetamine addicts.

The Police run stats every week and put the Bait Cars where the most vehicles are being stolen. Malls and shopping centers are the most common areas.

Mesa was No. 1 last year in car theft, but because of the use of the Bait Cars we have dropped to No. 2. There has been a 20% reduction in stolen vehicles in the last two years. They are catching criminals and it appears typically they get 5-6 years in jail.

Insurance companies give money to the Arizona Auto Theft Authority, and that group gives grants to the cities.

One demonstration had a couple of guys who completed dismantled a Ford 150 in 12 minutes, leaving nothing but the shell. Nicole said that was slow, because the criminals use power tools to do it more quickly.

Saturday is Statewide Watch Your Car day. There is a H.E.A.T. event this Saturday, March 4th, at the Target in West Mesa, 1230 S. Longmore. H.E.A.T. stands for Help Eliminate Auto Theft. Your vehicle identification number (VIN) will be etched on your vehicle windows for FREE and you can learn more about Watch You Car program. You get decals for the car that means the Police can stop anyone driving it between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., since most of us don’t drive at that time. It will also be automatically stopped at the Border and you will be asked to prove you are the legal owner.

Agenda Item Two: Dialogue on the May 16th Election for property and sales taxes. Vicky Linoff represented her husband well and talked about the YesforMesa campaign. There is a soft launch until we get beyond the Primary election so we can focus on that one. Be sure to vote. There is lots of info on the Web site at http://yesformesa.com. There is also an updated Tax Calculator that will tell you what you will owe. (Claudia and I did it and found out it will be about $11 a month…which I think is reasonable.)

Volunteers are needed in the Speakers Bureau and other volunteers are needed to deliver and put up signs. Vicky asked us to write letters to the Editors of the papers.

Claudia Walters spoke to the subject and said that it is important for the people to know that the Council has not been irresponsible in spending. Some say we shouldn’t have built the Arts Center, but that project was voted on by the public and the funds will go away in July. It wasn’t something the Council decided to do…it was on the ballot and passed.

One reason the Council wanted us all to go through the exercise to review different programs and prioritize where we would like the money to be spent specifically because they wanted us to know how hard it is going to be to choose.

Item 3 – Apartment-to-condo conversions ordinance. This is about to come before the Council. It is a process that streamlines the ability of investors to purchase apartments and turn them into condos. There are challenges to doing this correctly so that you don’t turn an individual property with one owner of apartments into a myriad of owners of condos that you have to watch. It is hoped that the apartments will be forced to raise the amenities to the condo level.

Item 4: Proposed legislation on ‘right to compensate’ for zoning changes. This does not appear to be a good idea.

Item 4: Neighborhood updates. Dave Richins passed around an artist’s rendering of the Chinese complex that will go in where the old Target store is now.

Carolyn Crandell will attend the Mesa Grande Archeological Site discussions this week and bring back information about this important area of our Points of Pride for MGCA.

Note: The J.C. Penney building at the old TriCity Mall will be demolished in the middle of April. Stay tuned for details.