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Noticed that the Phoenix City Council cut Jeremy off in mid-sentence. Not exactly a First Amendment “address your government” friendly place. Cold, uncaring government. One time, we were at the 7th hour of a 8 hour Committee hearing when a woman in the audience began crying. I got up, went out, knelt down and asked her how we could help her. She said a friend of hers was dying in the hospital. A senate page came up and asked if I wanted her to get the Health Committee Analyst.

Two years later, a woman came up to me, introduced herself, Kelly Satterfield. Said “if not for you, I’d be dead.”

Very seldom any reason for limiting people to three minutes. The right to address your government is so important they wrote it into the constitution. And, Jeremy had interesting information. Also, the way they signal the end of your time is rude and cold.

In forty years of chairing committees, never once did I cut off a witness. Instead, I would ask them questions to get to the root of their problem.

The other thing I did was I ignored open meeting law. Open meeting law says that you have to ignore such open meeting testimony. I never did. I would always ask questions if I were chairing the committee to ensure the citizen knew that they had been understood, completely.

The Phoenix City Councils compliance with open meeting law is pure, cold, unemotional and likely meaningless.

Jeremy is very unlikely to get golf courses shut down. Likely, 7 to 8% of Phoenix residents are golfers. That would be more than 10% of households. Probably more than 18% of voting households. His real interest is that he wants to be part of the 0.0001% that plays disc golf and gets 0.0004% of the land and water to do that. The council should listen to him and research the issue. People need to get off their obese buttocks and get outside where there are fewer refrigerators.

Jeremy also is likely abusing open meeting law and you are inviting people to abuse it further. I find it impossible to believe that that he can’t get an excel spreadsheet listing each golf course, their water consumption by month, the totals for the year and the cost.

If you abuse your rights, you lose them. That’s what happened to this law. Kavanaugh's legislation allows government to ignore requests that are abusive. Which opens the door to them ignoring politically uncomfortable requests.

If Jeremy wants to “audit” that data, don’t pull a cyber ninja on Phoenix, he needs to select one golf course. Or better yet, do a public records request to the Salt River Project, the supplier and see if the supplier data matches the user data.

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I have been given financials for Golf and a few SRP invoices. They do not match up. The other thing that doesn't match up is Parks' statement that they spend $10M annually on water and only $74K is paid by Golf despite consuming 33% of Parks' total water usage. It simply doesn't add up. The City will not and has not provided me with the invoices equaling $74K or anything close to that amount. In contrast, Softball's financials show Rose Mofford Park spends $115K for watering a few acres. Golf courses occupy one-thousand acres.

You're correct that 7% of the population plays golf. They don't all play at municipal courses. In fact, Phoenix has almost 200 courses. Use any method you'd like to extrapolate the individuals playing the City courses and you'll find it can't be over 3% and is likely under 1%. The average golfer in AZ plays 15 to 25 rounds per year.

If you believe my interest in closing golf courses is related to my desire for more disc golf, you're mistaken. I have no interest in opening a disc golf course or partnering with the City based on my experience. That dream has sailed and now it is a matter of principle.

If you believe the City will hand over invoices matching the financials, please submit a records request. I have absolutely not abused the Public Records Law. In fact, the Ombudsmann's office just opened a formal investigation into the City's handling of my requests. The First Amendment Clinic is representing me and pushing forward against the City in my requests for water invoices.

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