Oh, the irony of all ironies.
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon sent out a letter today to Phoenix residents on the city budget with an opening line that read: "In the City of Phoenix, we value transparency in government."
Value transparency?
Wait, there's more: "Every city employee and elected leader reports to you, the taxpayer. I've worked hard in my five years as Mayor to open up our processes to the public - especially when it comes to city finances."
Worked hard to open up? Perhaps he means clam up?
This is the same mayor who continues to refuse to answer any questions about how he spends money donated to the State of Downtown fund, which is intended for marketing and improving downtown Phoenix.
He won't answer questions about who gave him and/or paid for tickets that got him and Elissa Mullany, his girlfriend and former political fundraiser, into two Super Bowl games.
He won't answer questions about paying Mullany $30,000 for "administration" or "fund-raising" out of various political campaign funds when the accounts had been inactive for more than a year or showed no record of fund-raising activity.
He refuses to release logs maintained by his publicly funded security detail. Those logs would reveal how Gordon spent his time during the day and whether the security detail was used appropriately or as a personal chauffeur service for his girlfriend.
He refuses to release his city Conflict of Interest list because of "attorney-client" privilege. Never mind that the rest of the City Council members released their lists, which essentially have the names of people or organizations that might pose a potential conflict for individual council members. When the City Attorney's Office reviews council agendas, they make a note of potential conflicts as a heads up to council members.
He refused to disclose that Mullany was working for Phoenix developer Steve Ellman, even though Ellman has redevelopment projects coming before the city. And e-mails obtained by New Times revealed that the strategy to hide that bit of information was to mislead anyone who asked about it. In fact, Gordon's hired flak at the time, Jason Rose, told Gordon's staffers to pretend they didn't know anything about it.
Phil Gordon values transparency ... yeah, about as much Mark Souder values abstinence.
