A Great, yet unfortunate, Opportunity

Gilbert operates so lean that it doesn't seem like there is going to be a permanent position for me here, which I have known from pretty much the get go.  Still I have enjoyed my work here so much and wish that there could be :(.  Anyway, my manager has been sending my resume out trying to help me find a permanent position somewhere.  I think I had written about a lunch a few weeks back with US Congressman Matt Salmon.  He ended up winning the election and last week my manager told me that she was speaking with his chief of staff who asked if I would be interested in joining his staff in D.C.  Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to do this because I would have roughly a month to move my husband and son!  If I didn't have a family I would jump at an opportunity like this, but hey, they're worth it!

Anyway, the point is that the networking aspect is soo soo important.  I made enough of an impression that they remembered me when looking for candidates to fill their positions, and in DC.  I'm confident that other opportunities will come up in the future.

Help End Hunger

So since it's the holiday season I wanted to share a couple sites that I think are pretty neat as far as being able to participate and donate to causes online.  One is completely free - Freerice.com  You can go to this site and play some word games, for every question you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated.  Kind of fun and for a good cause.  The second site is the hunger site where you can donate money to different charities varying from ending hunger, illiteracy, child healthcare and some others.  You can also participate for free by sending e-cards, signing e-petitions, and registering with the site on Facebook and Twitter.  They also have some pretty neat stuff for sale for which the proceeds go to charity.

TPT Taskforce

Last week my manager had me do some research regarding the Governor's TPT Taskforce meetings.  Specifically I was researching and synthesizing what has occurred at the contracting working groups meetings.  This is going to be a major issue this coming legislative session.  The Taskforce is made up of 4 different groups - a general one, one focused on retail tax, online tax, and contracting tax.  Arizona has a very different and complicated tax structure than many states.  Vendors and contractors are required to register with the state and follow different tax regulations for different cities.  This is why sometimes if you buy somthing in at a Gilbert stores and do an even exchange for the product at a Mesa store, you will get a little refund.

The major issue to towns and cities falls under the contracting taxes.  Contractors and service providers currently pay taxes directly to municipalities.  The proposed restructuring is to create a materials based tax that they are required to pay at the point of sale.  The worry is that municipalities will lose a major portion of their general fund that comes from taxes because building materials are not actually purchased in the city where the work is being done. 

After doing the research, I attended the last Contracting Working Group's meeting at the capitol.  It was pretty apparent that they were done discussing the issue at these meetings and had already agreed to move ahead with the proposed solution.  However, I think that a lot more discussion is going on behind closed doors.

Dose Locker and Limitless Ultimate Workout Necessities!!

So since we can post about anything we want for our personal entries, I am going to take a minute to plug my product.  My husband and I are into bodybuilding and all the supplements that go with it :)  Anyway, last year we developed a product that we call the Dose Locker.  It is a funnel/storage container for powdered supplements of any kind!  More information can be viewed at our website.  This product has done well; we have a contract with an industry distributor and are working on an agreement with GNC.  We recently developed the first supplement of our own, a pre-workout that we call Limitless, that from personal use, is pretty amazing!!  Both are for sale on Amazon - Dose Locker 2 Pack (also available individually) and Limitless

ADEQ Project Update

A couple weeks ago I finished up my research for my original project regarding the ADEQ fee assessment.  I created a formal report and have reached out to several individuals to get some feedback before finalizing it.  First, I contacted the budget director here at Gilbert to see if she had any recommendations.  I reached out to her because the impact of the fee increase is really centered around the budget because it means more money needed to the different departments.  She had a couple suggestions that I incorporated into my report.

Then I contacted the Deputy Director of AZ League of Cities and Towns since he is an expert in the field.  I was a little nervous to contact him, because I had not met him in person yet, but I went ahead and sent my report over to him.  He asked me when I wanted to chat, so I assumed we would be speaking on the phone, but this morning I had a voicemail letting me know that he could meet in person with me today.  I was so surprised.  He was nice enough to come down to Town Hall to meet with me and discuss my assessment.  It was a quick meeting because he thought I had done a good job on the report.  He did have one recommendation of something I could add content wise and told me I could e-mail him and he would get me the information I needed.  This is yet another example of how important relationship building is in public administration/government; people can be extraordinary resources!

Networking

A big part of what my internship has consisted of is networking.  The week before the election I went to a lunch with Congressman Matt Salmon down the street from Town Hall.  At the meeting was Matt Salmon, two of his campaign managers, the Gilbert Council, Mayor, Town Manager, Town Clerk, and the intergovs.  The lunch was actually open to the public, but only one member of the public, who is a reporter for AZ Central was in attendance.  The purpose of the meeting was to allow Matt Salmon to speak with the Council and basically show that he would like to work closely with Gilbert.

First the Mayor and Town Manager gave short updates on the Town and then Matt Salmon discussed some of the key issues that he plans on focusing on during his time in Congress.  Then each Council Member had a chance to talk about any concerns they had or issues that they wanted the Salmon to focus on.  I really enjoy attending these type of events, not only for the networking purposes, but also for the learning that I get out of it.  It really is an inside look at the political side of local government and how interactions between officials at the different levels occurs.