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Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton will bring a bigger government bureaucracy to Phoenix then Phil Gordon???
Even if some of these new folks work for free I suspect they will all demand free government pork for the special interest groups they represent. Phoenix mayor gets free help with policies Colleges, businesses loan Phoenix experts by Lynh Bui - Mar. 2, 2012 10:19 PM The Republic | azcentral.com Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton has two more positions on his staff than predecessor Mayor Phil Gordon had when he left office. And Stanton plans to add even more in the months ahead. No, these extra bodies aren't working for free. With an ambitious policy agenda and a strapped city budget, Stanton has created an Advocates on Loan program. The idea is to get more policy work out of his office without spending extra city money. The program relies on partnerships with the private sector, universities and non-profit entities willing to loan out employees to work part time for Stanton. In turn, these advocates can use the bully pulpit of the mayor's office to advance policy goals shared between Stanton and their organizations. Stanton has two advocates focused on sustainability and education, and he plans to add three more to work on homelessness, small business and "the creative sector," or arts and culture. "These are issues that were the mayor's priorities during his campaign, and they still are," said Ruben Alonzo, who served as Stanton's campaign manager and is now the mayor's deputy chief of staff. "When we saw the (budget) realities in the mayor's office, the mayor said, 'We need to figure out a way to make this a part of my administration.' " The mayor's office budget is $1.4 million annually and pays for staff, supplies and other operations. That budget covers 11 positions in the mayor's office, including the mayor's salary. Those figures are a reduction from what Gordon started with when he first took office in 2003. Gordon's office's budget was $1.8 million for fiscal 2003-04, with 19 staff positions, including his own. When all of the "advocates" are hired, Stanton's office will have a total of 16 positions. Gordon had volunteers who helped in his office during tight budget times, but Stanton is formalizing the Advocates on Loan program to focus on very specific policy issues during his administration. Already, Arizona State University has loaned faculty associate Colin Tetreault from the School of Sustainability to serve as a senior policy adviser for Stanton. And Phoenix College faculty member Trino Sandoval will work on Stanton's policy priorities, including developing the Mayors' Futures Forum on Education with other Arizona mayors. While some might say the mayor's office is overstaffed, Stanton's chief of staff, Paul Blue, said people don't realize the amount of day-to-day work that goes on. Staff members are writing speeches, wrangling hundreds of requests for Stanton to appear at community events, developing agendas for City Council meetings, overseeing more than 800 city board and commission members, and driving policy outside of the issues covered by the "Advocates on Loan.
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