Tag Archives: Government grants

The Word is Out on the Greed and Mismanagement of the Arizona State University Administration, ABOR, and the numbers don’t lie…

Don’t trust lying bureaucrat fat cats, check the facts for yourself. Go to an inflation rate calculator online and check the inflation on ONE U.S. dollar from January 2002 when Michael Crow became the university president and compare to January 2017. One dollar ($1.00) in 2002 equates to ($1.37) in 2017. That’s a 37% increase, not a 370% increase, an increase to students that is 333% more than the steadily rising rate of inflation. 

Click picture below for details:

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich sues Regents over outrageous tuition costs https://www.azag.gov/acrab [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich discusses his lawsuit with Dennis Welch]

[WATCH RAW VIDEO: Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announces lawsuit against Board of Regents]

[EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich discusses his lawsuit with Dennis Welch]

Tuition is up 300-plus percent since ’02

The word is out on the greed and mismanagement of the Arizona State University Administration, ABOR, and the numbers don’t lie…

http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2017/09/08/brnovich-takes-regents-over-cost-tuition-hallelujah/647748001/

http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2017/09/08/arizona-attorney-general-sues-board-of-regents-over-tuition-setting-policies/

http://www.statepress.com/article/2017/09/sppolitics-asu-arizona-attorney-general-sues-board-of-regents-over-unconstitutional-tuition-raises

http://www.jackcentral.org/news/arizona-ag-files-lawsuit-against-abor/article_1e301fe8-9d91-11e7-9d1f-f392847af9a8.html

http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2017/09/ag-brnovich-sues-regents

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2017/09/08/arizona-attorney-general-sues-state-universities.html

http://tucson.com/news/local/arizona-attorney-general-sues-regents-over-tuition-hikes/article_149a2a30-1cf9-5fbb-aaf5-d5a1ce4e416f.html

http://www.kvoa.com/story/36324412/arizona-attorney-general-sues-universities-over-daca-tuition

http://www.azfamily.com/story/36324829/arizona-ag-sues-board-of-regents-over-university-tuition-rates

https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2017/09/09/ag-sues-arizona-board-of-regents-for-unconstitutional-unconscionable-tuition-hikes/

http://sonorannews.com/2017/09/12/ag-sues-arizona-board-regents-unconstitutional-tuition-hikes/

https://www.reddit.com/r/NAU/duplicates/6yy06l/abor_sued_by_az_attorney_general/

https://seeingredaz.wordpress.com/2017/09/09/az-ag-brnovich-sues-board-of-regents-over-tuition-hikes/

 

Laurie Roberts: Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich says the Regents have “dramatically and unconstitutionally” nearly quadrupled tuition over the last 15 years.

Yet Arizona State University President Michael Crow has the stupidity to lie and say, “I can say with confidence that ASU today is delivering great value to students from Arizona at a cost of tuition as close to free as possible.” What a lying sack of shit.

[EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich discusses his lawsuit with Dennis Welch]

[WATCH RAW VIDEO: Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announces lawsuit against Board of Regents]

  Tuition is up 300-plus percent since ’02 (We believe the actual costs are higher, at 370%, but Crow will say everyone gets nearly all their costs met via financial aid. Maybe he thinks a loan and % interest is financial aid?)

Below copy courtesy of the AZ Republic.

Commence the hallelujahs. At long last, somebody’s taking on the Arizona Board of Regents over the outrageously high cost of tuition at Arizona’s three universities.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich on Friday sued the Regents, saying they have “dramatically and unconstitutionally” increased tuition and fees by up to 370 percent over the last 15 years.

The lawsuit says the Board of Regents has “abandoned its duty to serve as a check on the university presidents” and allowed an “unprecedented series of lockstep tuition hikes” that violate the state’s constitutional mandate to keep college “as nearly free as possible.”

“ABOR has raised the base tuition and fees for in-state students … at approximately nine to 10 times the rate of inflation and approximately 12 to 13 times the rate of increase of median family income over the period covering the last 15 years,” the lawsuit says.

That’s going to leave a mark.

Brnovich also is challenging the Regents’ decision to continue offering in-state tuition to qualified undocumented students. The state Court of Appeals in June ruled that those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program don’t have “lawful immigration status” and thus don’t qualify for in-state tuition.

It’s no surprise that Brnovich sued over tuition subsidies for dreamers. If he hadn’t, former Senate President Russell Pearce and Judicial Watch would have sued on Monday – collecting hefty legal fees when they inevitably prevail. (Or do we think that any court would say it’s OK to ignore the unanimous ruling of the Court of Appeals, in hopes that the Supreme Court might eventually overturn it?)

The shocker – and a pleasant one, at that – was Brnovich challenging the Regents over the overall runaway cost of tuition. The Republican AG is pulling no punches.

He notes that the cost of attending an Arizona university was about $2,600 a year in 2002-03. This year, it’s $12,228 at University of Arizona (a 370 percent increase), $11,059 at Northern Arizona University (a 325 percent increase) and $10,792 at Arizona State University (a 315 percent increase).

“This annualized 12 percent rate of growth has doubled in-state tuition and fees over the past eight years and represents the second fastest rate of growth among all 50 states,” the lawsuit says.

Don’t buy ‘lawmakers forced us’ excuse

No doubt, universities will blame the state Legislature for the need to massively hike tuition. Indeed, the Legislature has slashed per-student state funding for universities by 63 percent over the last 10 years, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. But in that same time, the Regents have increased tuition and mandatory fees by 90 percent (at ASU) to 121 percent (at U of A).

So, not buying that excuse. And neither is Brnovich. (And neither should you.)

In addition to massive tuition increases, Brnovich slams the Regents on multiple other fronts, saying they are breaking the law …

… By forcing students to pay fees for such things such as athletics, technology, recreation and health in order to take classes.

… By charging part-time and online students more than the cost of furnishing instruction.

… By failing in their legal responsibility to ‘differentiate the tuitions and fees between institutions.”

How is this ‘nearly free as possible?’

“The fact that all three institutions’ tuition was hiked in lockstep over a 15-year period … means that ABOR acted to prevent any meaningful competition based on price,” the lawsuit says.

This isn’t the first time the Regents have been sued for attaching tuition bills to a rocket and sending them skyward. Four U of A students sued in 2003, after the Regents hiked tuition by 39 percent. But the students lost, with the Supreme Court calling the setting of tuition a political question.

Now, 15 years later, the courts are once again being asked to stop the Regents’ end run around the Constitution.

Or does the near quadrupling of tuition over 15 years – outstripping the growth of family income 12 to 13 times over – now count as a college education that is “as nearly free as possible?” 

MORE FROM ROBERTS:

Russell Pearce piles on dreamers with lawsuit threat

Ducey ally calls for education tax increase. Breathe, governor

School voucher vote is a go. You listening, Ducey?

In an internet search we stumbled across these articles on happenings at the university.

Sept. 30, 2014: Gifting ASU’s Prez with $95K raise+benies = one helluva deal

Apr. 22, 2014:  AZ higher education: As nearly free as possible? & Update

March 7, 2013: ASU’s Crow backs lower tuition for illegals — again

Feb. 8, 2013:   Michael Crow, Sybil Francis: A$U’s pricey duo

May 7, 2011:   ASU’s Crow tackles budget reductions by raising tuition – again

Feb. 2, 2011:   ASU’s overpaid Crow warns of tuition increase as stimulus ebbs

Apr. 11, 2009: “Economic recovery surcharges” hit AZ university students

March 6, 2008: Disputed scholarships for illegals revived

Nov. 23, 2008AZ universities feel students’ pain as tuition spirals and money dries up

Apr. 26, 2008:  ASU’s overpaid King Crow issues threats

Nov. 17, 2008: ASU’s Crow in cash glut while economy tanks and tuition rises

Sept. 8, 2007:  ASU’s Michael Crow subverts intent of law

Arizona State University President Michael Crow runs to TWITTER to unsuccessfully to defend his absurd position to justify a 370% increase in costs for students during his tenure.

Click on the Twitter picture below to see Michael Crow’s unsuccessful attempt to excuse a 370% cost increase for students.

 

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Congratulations to AZ Attorney General Mark Brnovich! How many universities get sued by their state attorney general’s offices?

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2017/09/08/arizona-attorney-general-lawsuit-against-regents-universities-tuition-increases/647025001/

Seriously, when does this ever happen? Something must be seriously wrong with the management of the Arizona State University when the state’s Attorney General’s Office is suing them! ASU management will simply throw other people’s money at the problem in hopes it will go away and they will be free to conduct business as usual, just as they did with the 8 police officers who were suing them. We are hoping for a release of some of that information and their evidence to us, so that it can be published. Send it and it will be!

Apparently, times are changing. Hats off the The Arizona Attorney General’s Office for taking this initiative, but we will see if they have what it takes to follow through on behalf of the citizens of Arizona getting stiffed by it’s representatives in State University Government. Is it really any surprise? Our prediction is that corruption will win the day and this will all go away. Why?

ASU has a network of current and former state legislators tied to it in quid pro quo financial exchanges for legislative influence. Is it any wonder that HARVARD commissioned a study finding ARIZONA the MOST CORRUPT STATE IN THE US in a virtual tie with New Jersey. https://ethics.harvard.edu/blog/measuring-illegal-and-legal-corruption-american-states-some-results-safra  (Further exploration of this issue will be reserved for another article.)

Typically, we cover the corruption systemic within the Arizona State University Police Department, but there have been some interesting developments lately. Employees of ASUPD have been wondering for decades…how can a top heavy, grossly mismanaged, hobbled, chronically & perennially understaffed police department continue to fail year after year?  Enabling. The ASUPD is enabled, expected to be a show of legitimacy without the staffing, training, experience, equipment, and especially the leadership to take it there. Active law enforcement catches real criminals committing real crimes and raises crime statistics, which are a source of bad publicity for ASU because it impacts enrollment $$$. Students are literally endangered and killed year after year because of stat manipulation, propaganda, and misinformation that could have allowed their families to make an informed decision about where their kids would go to school.

The fact is Michael Crow and friends can laud attendance or more money coming in all they want, they compare ASU to Harvard, which it’s not. Harvard understands corruption and they are managed with people  who have sense enough not to become the subject of those studies. More money is coming from kids with less and less means to pay back the loans in what’s now a king’s ransom to go to school.

If Attorney General Mark Brnovich and other responsible Arizona leaders are serious they will dig further into what the Arizona State University does with it’s money and CONDUCT A FULL FORENSIC AUDIT. With corruption as common as it is in Arizona, they’ll surely find something worthwhile. (Consider this a draft. More contributions will be coming, we are still dealing with a back log of information and requests from people still at the department, nothing has changed.)

And one more time, for recollection: ASU POLICE MANAGEMENT, Cmdr. William Orr present.

 

 

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Got Fraud? Arizona State University Police Does: this time it’s State Government Grants and M.A.D.D. Misappropriation.

 

Story made possible by the contributions of an anonymous source through the comments section who gave us permission to use the information, but not to publish the comment. 

The command at the Arizona State University Police Department take nothing more seriously than acquiring more additional money for themselves and what the troops have come to call their minions, the cadre of supplicants, “the clique”.  The quickest way to get more money at the Arizona State University Police Department is to ingratiate yourself with those in charge. It doesn’t require experience or competency in the job you’re sworn to do, everywhere else it usually does, but not in the ASUPD. There are Sergeants running around clueless with only one year of university only patrol experience managing officers with 2, 5, 10, 20, and 30 years of patrol experience. Some of these officers even tested against these Sergeants, beat them until it came to the “oral boards” where all other testing scores and resume experience no longer mattered and they lost out on the position. Some of these applicants were highly decorated officers from city departments who put their lives on the line for many years before coming to a whore house masquerading as a state police department.

We are not critics of state support for law enforcement. We are critics of those who undermine the efforts and image of the noble uniformed police officer for their own enrichment at the cost of safety for the communities they are sworn to serve. The Arizona State University Police Department has a sizable budget in the double digits for millions of dollars. It’s further acerbated by the fact the police department’s command seems unable to stop officers (the ones who really work as actual cops) from wanting to leave the department, but receive funding to hire as many officers as possible and convert the line money they receive for the officers they don’t have to what they term as “salary savings”. 

We received some information in the comments section from a anonymous source who did not wish to be published, but said we could use the information provided. We learned that ASU Police Commander Louis Scichilone managed ASU Police overtime for the DUI Taskforce for many years that other police departments co-participate in. While managing the overtime Commander Louis Scichilone would hand pick who worked that overtime detail. In doing so he selected his friends like ASU Police Sergeant Mark Aston, ASU Police Sergeant Pamela Osborne, ASU Sergeant/Commander Christopher Speranza, and others to receive the additional money for these events.

After selecting trusted friends for the DUI Taskforce events, ASU Police Commander Louis Scichilone and these other three officers would ride 4 to a patrol vehicle, make some token stops for stats, but lacked in custody DUI arrests before collecting time and a half overtime pay at the Sergeant rank. Sometimes other officers were included in this scheme, but no other names were given to us. What we don’t know is how many times this scheme was carried out or the dollar amount essentially stolen from government grants and payments from families who lost relatives to drunk drivers. M.A.D.D. We were also told that the Arizona State Police Department was uninvited to participate in D.U.I. Enforcement overtime due to a lack of performance. This grant make sense as a way for the state of Arizona to bolster the tarnished image of the Arizona State University Police Department, but it’s more good money after bad results for the tax payer and the public who could be better served if the troops had adequate leadership with a resemblance of integrity, at least average intelligence, and a modicum of people skills.

The partnership of the ASU Police Department patrolling with the Tempe Police Department in the Safe and Sober program, an effort designed to decrease rowdy off-campus behavior, often saw ASUPD Officers being diverted to assist or take primary on regular ASU Police calls, due to the shortages in staffing that have plagued the department for many years. The off-campus Safe and Sober program succeeded in cleaning up Tempe, but drove the crime back on to the Arizona State University Campus where the lack of patrol units is an open invitation for criminals to shop-without-a-cop in the Arizona State University Crime Spree Zone.

 

Here’s the ASU State Press article on the grants:

http://www.statepress.com/article/2017/02/sppolitics-asu-police-granted-nearly-by-the-governors-office-of-highway-safety

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety granted the ASU Police Department more than $68,000 for DUI, youth alcohol and selective traffic enforcement.

The grant is split into two parts: $60,000 for DUI and youth alcohol enforcement, which primarily covers overtime pay for officers a part of the task force, and $5,000 to be spent on Portable Breath Test Instruments. 

The department was also awarded $3,080 for Selective Traffic Enforcement, a program focused on adding police to monitor pedestrians and cyclists in the area, according to a press release issued by ASU police on Feb. 10. (AKA Extra money for doing what a police department is supposed to do.)

Commander John Thompson, who oversees Tempe campus patrol operations for the ASU police, said the GOHS has given out grants to local police departments for as long as he’s been an officer.

“This year – in 2016 – we applied for another grant and we were awarded monies that we will use,” Thompson said. “We began utilizing that money over the Christmas holiday season so during pretty much the entire month of December … every weekend and the week leading up to Christmas and the week after Christmas there are ongoing task force efforts almost on a nightly basis.”

Thompson said the department does not ask for a specific amount of money, but simply applies for a grant and the GOHS determines the amount. 

The money allows the department to put more officers on duty during bigger campus events, such as football games.

“This money allows us to bring in officers on overtime and go out and specifically spend their efforts looking for DUIs, people violating DUI laws, and then as well as any other traffic related issues that we might encounter,” Thompson said. “When we have … Devilpalooza in a couple of weekends here we’ll have a couple of officers in.”

Thompson said the grant will help pay for around 11 PBT breathalyzers the department bought recently. (So the money can be spent on lunches for command meetings and special trips for command and their friends in “training”.)

“We already have multiple of those machines that most of our officers do carry, this is just more that we can put in the hands of even more of our officers,” Thompson said.

This year’s grant was approximately $15,000-20,000 more than last year, Thompson said, mainly because the University and department have both grown.

GOHS Director Alberto Gutier said the office is glad to grant this money to several departments and organizations across Arizona. 

Gutier said overall the ASU police does a good job utilizing their grants, which is why they are happy to provide them with money yearly. (So how was this “good job” verified? The state says the state is doing a fine job, not surprising.)

“PBTs are about $500 apiece and that includes mouth pieces that PBTs use,” Gutier said. “We probably provided a thousand plus PBTs the last couple years for agencies around the state. You can buy a very good PBT for $350-400, you add to that shipping and mouthpieces – it’s about $500 so if we give $5,000 it means they can order 10 PBTS.”

The Selective Traffic Enforcement is an effort to educate and inform students on campus the laws of being a pedestrian or a bicyclist, Gutier said. He said new students often don’t know the laws, which can lead to traffic accidents, so the education and warning is better than just giving a ticket.

Gutier said the department gladly provides funding for programs protecting pedestrians and bicyclists because of the rate of pedestrian fatalities in Arizona. 

Daniel Roman, a civil engineering junior, said he has had every experience as a pedestrian that one can imagine.

“I’ve been hit by a long boarder, and I’ve been hit by a car while long boarding,” Roman said. “I was going across the cross walk and the car just didn’t see me.” (You were riding through a crosswalk on a long board instead of dismounting.)

Roman said he thinks education for pedestrians would be good, since many students on campus don’t have any knowledge of the laws of being a pedestrian. (Stop, Caution, Go, Walk, Don’t Walk, Right of Way, simple.)

“I always just figure pedestrians have right of way,” Roman said. “I think it could be valuable to educate students on what they can and can’t do.” (Cars can kill people when they crash into pedestrians.)


Reach the reporter at maatenci@asu.edu or follow @mitchellatencio on Twitter.

Keep the information coming, it’s only going to improve things at ASUPD by making 

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,