Thursday, June 30, 2016

Lobbyist fired


Prior posts have lamented how lobbyists have overridden the will of both the people and the Legislature to prevent the mineral museum and its K-12 educations programs from being restored.

Therefore, an article in today’s Republic (referenced below) provides very welcome news. The Governor has fired all state contract lobbyists, including the AHS lobbyist.  Students, teachers, and mineral museum supporters will no longer have to fight entrenched, taxpayer funded lobbyists that want the mineral museum building for their own selfish purposes. 

Reference:
Sanchez, Yvonne Wingett, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey fires state's contract lobbyists, the Republic | azcentral.com 6:39 a.m. MST June 30, 2016   http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2016/06/29/gov-doug-ducey-fires-arizona-contract-lobbyists/86526768/

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

AZGS challenges


The transfer of  the mineral museum to the AZGS is very welcome and was  long overdue, but other legislation involving the AZGS is problematic. The Arizona  Geological Society drew attention to some of the issues in a recent editorial: http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2016/06/15/my-turn-arizona-geological-survey-life-support-and-needs-publics-help/85848418/

 A condensed version of the following guest post was also published as a letter to the editor in the June 17th paper copy of the Arizona Republic. In the newespaper, the title of the letter was "Arizona Geological Survey saddled with impossible tasks." 

The so-called agency consolidation of the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) is a SHAM. 

The move was a calculated, deliberate act for the sole purpose of severely restricting the survey’s ability to serve the public.  Why? You may ask.

Some Background
Last year, there was a bill (SB1200) passed overwhelmingly by the Senate and House to transfer the responsibility of the closed mining and mineral museum from the Historical Society (AHS) to AZGS, but the governor vetoed it saying “there was no plan”.  This year, out of the blue, the governor proposes in his budget that the AZGS be moved to the University of Arizona (UA), but he had no (public) plan (meaning he did not consult either the UA or AZGS before announcing it).  Again, why?

Well, let’s look closely at that agency consolidation bill, SB1530 signed by the governor.  In it, the Geological Survey is moved under the University of Arizona (UA) with no funding and it is also given the responsibility to open the Mining Mineral and Natural Resource Educational Museum with no funding for that either.  Moreover, the AZGS is expected to raise the funds to rehabilitate the old mining and mineral museum building, (upwards of $700,000, this amount for rehab even before occupancy can occur and only a start of the total monies needed, per an ADOA preliminary report), now five years neglected by both the Historical Society (AHS) and the AZ Dept of Administration (ADOA).  And, not only does the AZGS have to raise funds to rehab the building, but also has to open the new museum, all by July 1, 2018.

On top of that, the Senate Amended Fact Sheet for SB1530 specifically states:  the legislature’s intent that the AZGS maintain the current level of service and approximately fifteen full time employees”.
(Well, where is “Superman” when you need him?)

Let’s recap:
·        AZGS is defunded (the UA has graciously provided one year of funding at last year’s state funding level of approximately $941,300.) 
·        AZGS has to raise $700,000+ for the rehabilitation of the old museum building all before rehab can even begin
·        AZGS has to maintain its current level of service with only 15 employees
·        AZGS has to move into a space that is a fourth the size of its current space in Tucson.  (Because of this move, the AZGS had to close its AZ Experience Store1.  (My question is, will this single act be construed by the legislature as not providing the AZGS’s current level of service?) Hmmm!
 
·        AZGS must obtain its own funding for the move of both their Tucson and Phoenix offices. (The state (ADOA) will not provide funding for AZGS’s move, although it is providing funding for the move of the Dept. of Water Resources which the AZGS has subleased space from for their Phoenix office for the last several years.) Hmmm!

·        AZGS has to gather all the inventory of the old mining and mineral museum, including the mineral collection, which has been either scattered all over the state to different historical museums or has been disposed of. (Granted, the AHS is to provide a list of the inventory and assist with its transfer.)

Yes, the AZGS gets a transfer of $428,300 and one FTE (Will this be considered to be included as one of the 15 employees?), from the AHS in FY 2017 to fund the operation of the museum. (But most of these funds go for the rent on the museum building.  Which, ADOA does not use for maintenance on the building as we have seen by its neglect over the past five years.  What happens in FY 2018?  Will the AZGS get this state appropriation for the rent and the one employee?)

Yes, the AZGS gets the Centennial License plate monies retroactive to May 1, 2016, plus what the AHS has not spent (ha, ha) over the last few years, but these monies come nowhere near enough to rehab the building and then there is the question as to whether or not these monies can be used for this purpose.

What happens when the AZGS does not have the Mining Mineral and Natural Resources Educational Museum open by July 1, 2018?  The Final Amended Fact Sheet for SB1530 states:  Stipulates that the Arizona Historical Society regains authority of the Mining Museum if the Museum is unopened by July 1, 2018.  What? Well, isn’t that an interesting development? Hmmm!  What conclusions have you come to?

The governor takes a well run, productive agency like the AZ Geological Survey and suddenly removes its funding (less than $1 million) and moves it under the UA, but, on the other hand, he rewards funding ($3 million+) to the poorly run, do nothing agency AHS. AHS pays no rent for the many state owned buildings they occupy – the mineral museum pays rent – AHS does not. The AHS was tasked by state statute five years ago with opening the AZ Experience Museum1, (aka AZ Centennial Museum) but has not done so.  Why is that?  Why is AHS so privileged?

1The Arizona Experience Store was run by the AZGS because AHS could not.  The Arizona Experience (virtual) Museum, a website, was set up originally by the AZGS because AHS could not. Hmmm!

Shirley Cote


Monday, June 13, 2016

Preserving history and scientific data


The AZGS library and extensive, historic mining files are currently being moved back to the mineral museum building at 15th Ave and West Washington.  Since the Governor eliminated the budget for the AZGS, the move is not funded. This week, volunteers are packing library materials to support the move. Details are available at: http://arizonageology.blogspot.com/2016/06/getting-ready-to-move-azgss-phoenix.html

Point of contact for volunteers is:
Nyal Niemuth
Arizona Geological Survey
3550 N. Central Ave., 2nd Floor
Phoenix, AZ 85012
602-771-1604 or page me at 771-1601

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

What do the “whiners and moaners” want?


The June 2 post cited an online AHS comment that called mineral museum supporters “whiners and moaners”. Widespread dissatisfaction with AHS mismanagement of mineral museum assets has certainly been expressed over the past six years. Was it unreasonable? What do these many “whiners and moaners” want?

Succinctly stated, they want the following:

Preservation of Arizona history: they want to preserve the historic and functionally restored mining equipment that the AHS abandoned at 15th and Washington St. in Phoenix.

Support for K-12 education: they want to reopen the mineral museum to over 40,000 children per year

Preservation of the mineral collection: they want the complete collection to be under the care of a qualified, science based state agency

Support for research: they want the entire mineral collection to be accessible, in one place, to researchers

Education for the public: they want to restore a top rated science museum with a focus on the origin and use of natural resources

The AHS was required, by statute, to continue operating the mineral museum properly. It chose not to. Why does it now wonder why there is widespread dissatisfaction?

The very fact that the AHS cannot understand why people are dissatisfied is reason enough, by itself, to demonstrate that the AHS should not have control of the mineral museum.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Point of contact for volunteers


The following is from Nyal Niemuth of the AZGS Phoenix Office.

Diane and I will be volunteering to get things moved from 3550 Central to the museum storage in the 1502 Washington building.

Here’s our preliminary plan.

We will need to do both library bookcases and 6 lateral filing cabinets.
Dismantling and reassembling book cases and some furniture will also be required.

So tentative volunteer dates are:

Packing begin June 13-16, if nec. 17

Unpacking June 27-30,  if nec. July 1.

Hopefully by using book carts it will go faster than the above plans.

We can always do some scheduling or reserve people for the unpacking.

We do not have access scheduled to the building scheduled for unpacking yet.

Who knows more tasks may arise.

Email and phone contacts for volunteers would be helpful.

Thanks.

Nyal Niemuth
Arizona Geological Survey
3550 N. Central Ave., 2nd Floor
Phoenix, AZ 85012
602-771-1604 or page me at 771-1601
nyal.niemuth@azgs.az.gov

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Uninformed AHS supporter



An uninformed AHS supporter placed the comment below on a May 30 AZGS post about difficulties with the AZGS – UA consolidation

Anonymous9:28 AM
Unfortunately, the voices were heard and enacted by one Gail Griffin, which resulted in a badly thought-out addition rushed onto the agency consolidation bill. All of this can be attributed to the whining and moaning of disgruntled MMM enthusiasts who hoped to wrestle the collections away from the nefarious Ann Woosley and the evil AHS. Be careful what you ask for, and whom you ask to speak for you.
That uninformed person should read Senator Griffins detailed plan for restoring the mineral museum: Implementation and Action Plan – Arizona Mining, Mineral & Natural Resource Education Museum - https://cammaz.net/implementation-and-action-plan-arizona-mining-mineral-natural-resource-education-museum/

The abrupt AZGS-UA consolidation is causing problems, but the museum transfer is not. Senator Griffin is not responsible for the current problems at the AZGS,

Would the uninformed AHS supporter like to debate the issue?

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Call for volunteers


The AZGS will soon be moving the historic mine files and mining library back to the mineral museum building. Help is needed to pack and unpack papers and books.

Detail are available on www.arizonageology.blogspot.com/2016/06/preservation-of-historical-mining-files.html