Best Commission or Board – Arizona Board of Regents

Best Commission or Board
Arizona Board of Regents
The board is the governing body of Arizona’s public university system. It provides policy guidance to Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, the University of Arizona and their branch campuses.
Working with all three state universities, serving as the employer of all state university employees and owning all the school facilities and the land they occupy keeps the board, and its current president, Bob Bulla, pretty busy. He regularly logs in more than 40 hours per week during his turn as board president. That’s a lot of work, especially for a guy who retired from his post as CEO of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Arizona in 2003, a year after starting his service to the board.
“I’m flunking retirement,” he says.
Mr. Bulla says that board members serve eight-year terms, earning $15 per “board day,” which amounts to about $200 a year. Financial gain, however, is not his motivation for serving.
“The reward is really feeling like your helping young people with education and helping the universities and economy grow,” he says. “I feel honored and blessed to help give back to the state.”
Mr. Bulla has lived in Arizona since 1946, and went through the state’s public school system, earning a bachelor’s degree in business from ASU. Of the board’s recognition by respondents to the Capitol Times poll, he says, “It’s an honor that people thought of us. I appreciate the comments and recognition.”
Best Place to get WiFi
Capitol lobbies
As technological forefronts go, one may not think of the houses of the Arizona Legislature as being on the cutting-edge. However, don’t tell that to the many lobbyists and others who take advantage of the free wireless internet access (WiFi) in and around these buildings.
Starting in late 2003, through donations of equipment, time and maintenance from Cox Communications, Intel and Hotzona.com, the Public Online Wireless Electronic Resource (POWER) became available to anyone in the Capitol area with a computer equipped to receive a wireless signal. The Arizona Legislature also became the first in the country to offer free public Internet access.
“In this environment, people need to stay connected to their office, they need information. This is a great way to help,” says Barrett Marson, director of communications for the House.
He said state money was not used in providing the system and that it is wholly separate from the legislative network, to quell fears of hackers breaking in and wreaking havoc. The free access has seemingly been embraced by many.
Mr. Marson tells the story of a lobbyist he saw in the Senate in mid-morning during the end of last session. When he crossed through the lobby again later in the afternoon and saw the same lobbyist on the same bench still working away, Mr. Marson joked with him, saying he was going to “start charging him rent.”
Best Route to the Airport
Washington all the way to 44th Street
What happens when artificially intelligent computers and humans disagree? Despite the far-reaching implications, in this case, the disagreement is not about the best way to design a suspension bridge or build a space station, it is simply on how to get to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport from the Capitol.
Capitol Times readers voted for taking Washington east, all the way to 44th Street, which would indicate entering the airport from the traditional east side, and then driving to the appropriate terminal parking lot. Mapquest.com, however, disagrees.
Entering a starting point of 1700 W. Washington and an ending point of the airport’s address, listed on their contact page as 3400 E. Sky Harbor, initially produced a route that was estimated to take 13 minutes and cover eight miles.
The Web site suggested taking 19th Avenue north to I-10, taking the 10 east to exit 149 toward Sky Harbor and eventually merging onto Sky Harbor Boulevard, entering the airport on the west side. This route was considered by the Internet site to take the least amount of time.
Tweaking the results to display the shortest distance, the route changed considerably, but was still not in agreement with the “human” result. The shortest distance, according to mapquest.com, covers less than six miles, but adds two minutes to the overall time, bringing it to 15 minutes. This route suggests taking Jefferson Street east to pick up the I-10 on its southern swing and then exiting at 149 and following the same route as above, entering the airport on the west side.
Best Radio Station
KJZZ 91.5 FM
Upon learning that KJZZ 91.5 FM had won the honor for best radio station, General Manager Carl Matthusen said, “You must have a lot of extraordinarily perceptive people reading your paper.”
Mr. Matthusen has worked for the station, which features jazz from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. and news from National Public Radio the rest of the day, since 1975. The station’s main identity is a source for news information and analysis, he says, and KJZZ continually tries to be the go-to source for the Valley’s citizens.
“We recently added a Latino affairs desk,” he says. “We are continually trying to expand our reach. As the population grows you can’t ignore it.”
In an average week, KJZZ will reach between 250,000 to 300,000 sets of ears across the Valley. The number of listeners is mainly dependent on population fluctuations, Mr. Matthusen adds.
Best Quote from the Political Campaigns & Best Campaign Slogan
‘Hogwash’ — Against Prop. 204
While smashed windows, federal agents, death threats all came to play a part in the battle over the “Humane Treatment of Farm Animals Act,” better known as Proposition 204, one firm used a single word to influence voters.
Copperstate Consulting, working for the Campaign for Arizona Farmers and Ranchers, a group that opposed the measure, made a valiant attempt to simplify the potentially confusing issue, and boiled its client’s position down to one adjective: “Hogwash.”
Despite their efforts to the contrary, the measure ultimately passed with 61 percent of voters favoring the proposition, which bans the use of gestation crates by hog farmers.
The opposition group did get their message out, via black signs emblazoned with big orange letters saying: “Prop 204 is HOGWASH.” Respondents to our poll agreed the signs were noticeable and remembered them well beyond Election Day.
Best Political Sign
Ernest Hancock’s ‘Still Voting?’
Ernest Hancock, Libertarian candidate for secretary of state in 2006 and outspoken opponent of unchecked electronic voting, knew his campaign signs would stir up some controversy, or at least get people talking. And that’s exactly what he wanted.
Readers of the Capitol Times took notice of the signs, which displayed white letters reading “Still Voting?” against a black background, in voting it the best. The V in the word voting was colored red with a circle around it, referencing the movie “Vendetta,” he says, where a totalitarian regime rules a futuristic Britain.
“My signs were controversial because they were the only ones that told any truth,” he contends. “They spoke a truth that others didn’t want to acknowledge. People believe in supporting the truth.”
All 150 copies of his sign were targeted toward people under 40 and “those who are paying attention” to the political processes around them, he says. He is very untrusting of the election results produced by electronic voting machines.
“My entire campaign was about how the whole voting process is rigged,” Mr. Hancock says.
Best Political Web site
espressopundit.com
After two years of existence, Greg Patterson’s Web site, espressopundit.com, is finally getting some recognition. He ceded that his honor from the Capitol Times was his first official award. He was overjoyed as he began to thank the academy and ended his acceptance by shouting “Free Tibet!”
He characterizes visitors to his Web site, accounting for about 1,000 hits per day, as being legislators, lobbyists and others who are “very similar to Capitol Times subscribers.”
Upon learning that radio station KJZZ, which spends half of its day broadcasting National Public Radio (NPR) news, had also earned an award, he said: “If both I and NPR won, you guys must have a very schizophrenic readership.”
Best Quote from a Legislator
‘I can’t read every e-mail I send’
— Rep. Russell Pearce
Best Monument in Wesley Bolin Plaza
Ten Commandments
What good is religion mixed with politics if there is no controversy?
Enduring occasional assaults by the ACLU and American Atheists, Arizona’s Ten Commandments monument currently sits in Wesley Bolin Plaza, flanked by the 158th Combat Team Memorial and the Fourth Marine Division Memorial.
The $500 granite monument was originally presented as part of a promotion of the movie, “The Ten Commandments,” to Governor Paul Fannin in 1964. It was initially placed adjacent from the Capitol buildings and eventually was relocated across the street near Wesley Bolin Plaza in 1974.
The monument has remained steadfast despite challenges of its constitutionality in 1992, 2001 and 2003. Most recently, in June 2005, the monument was again challenged and subsequently allowed to remain on display in the plaza, based largely on a ruling concerning a similar monument on the Capitol grounds in Austin, Texas.
Best State Agency Building
Department of Administration
Viewed from the sky, courtesy Google’s satellite imagery service, the Arizona Department of Administration building looks like a giant white geometric Pac-Man, ready to start gobbling up monuments in Wesley Bolin Plaza.
The building, completed in July 2002 by design firm Opus Architects & Engineers, Inc., sits on a six-acre lot and contains 177,038 square feet.
The department’s new building was built with energy conservation as a top priority. The new facility was recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under its Energy Star Program, for meeting “the criteria with a performance rating in the top 25 percent of all buildings in the United States.”
The building was constructed with energy efficient motion-activated lighting, high-reflectivity ceilings and walls, an energy efficient cooling system and a design allowing more natural light inside the building.
A brass plaque denoting this designation is affixed to each building on the right side of the entry doors.
Best Floor in the Executive Tower
Ninth Floor
A trip to the lookout post over the state, or the Ninth Floor of the Executive Tower, will reveal itself guarded, but inviting. Selected as a reader favorite, the Governor’s Office is not accessible by conventional means. A stop at the Eighth Floor is required before passage is granted to the top floor.
The elevator doors open on the Ninth Floor to a small foyer. A portrait of the governor eyes visitors from the right and a receptionist’s desk sits on the left. Walking straight ahead will place a visitor in the middle of a round room, staring directly north at a set of double doors, beyond which the governor’s desk sits.
The middle of the circular room is occupied by a sculpture from Native American artist Dan Namingha, a member of the Tewa-Hopi Tribe. The walls are alive with scenes, 10 different pictures, from all corners of Arizona. No matter which picture one looks at in this “compass room,” as it’s called, conceivably, a person could head in that direction and find a similar scene to the picture.
The office plays host to many visitors to the Grand Canyon State, and is a fine representation of the diverse landscapes waiting to be discovered.