Sarah Fenske leaving New Times

At the end of Fenske’s typically unputdownable last column for the paper*, she tells readers she’s leaving town.

Her next gig will be as managing editor of the Riverfront Times, the New Times paper in St. Louis**.

Her envoi:

SO LONG, FAREWELL

In case you haven’t heard, I’m leaving Arizona to work as the managing editor at New Times' sister paper in St. Louis, the Riverfront Times. And it’s fitting, I suppose, that my final column in Phoenix is about the Housing Authority of Maricopa County.

To me, this story exemplifies everything I hate about Phoenix — as well as everything I’ve grown to love. I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the country where con men prosper so quickly, where rules are broken so casually, where the rule of law is something that’s enforced only on the poor and the alien.

In almost any other big city, a guy like Doug Lingner would still be setting tile, not given the keys to a major nonprofit organization. In other places, people would be up in arms demanding Joe Arpaio’s resignation. (Say what you will about immigration, but this clown has squandered $45 million in lawyer fees and insurance payments! $45 million!) In other states, too, a guy facing a credible threat of disbarment — ahem, Andrew Thomas! — would not be considered a viable candidate for state attorney general.

Let’s face it: Shysters thrive here. Too many people are transplants who don’t care. Too many people hew too closely to ideology and have no interest in getting at the truth.

And yet, I’ve met more brave people in this state than anywhere else I’ve lived. It’s been easy to be a reporter here. For every con man, there’s someone willing to turn him in. For every Doug Lingner, there’s a Janet Belfield.

I may not miss the dry white heat of Phoenix summers. But I will miss having this weekly soapbox. And I’ll miss the brave people of Arizona, too.

---

* It’s about how the woman in the Maricopa County Housing Authority who has been fired after helping bring down former director Doug Lingner, who was driven out of the agency after numerous investigations and press exposes. Fenske:

Belfield, a longtime agency employee, is the one who blew the whistle on Lingner. And last week, she was fired by the housing authority. No severance. No chance to resign.

There’s not a doubt in my mind that her treatment is directly related to her attempts to expose Lingner.

** The New Times parent company is technically called Village Voice Media. It’s run out of Phoenix and Phoenix New Times remains its flagship.

Mayor Phil and his GF get into trouble

Turns out Mayor Phil Gordon has been dating one of his political consultants. The trouble comes because he’s been paying her for political work and has in the past nominated her to city boards.

Sarah Fenske in New Times has an in-depth story here.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon hasn’t needed to raise money since he waltzed to reelection in the fall of 2007, leaving a war chest stocked with $370,000.

Yet in the last two years, Gordon has paid his chief fundraiser big bucks all the same. Records show that Gordon paid fundraiser Elissa Mullany and her business partner, Cate Wunder, a total of $39,000 since January 2008. That’s a period in which the campaign hasn’t shown a dime of revenue.

Gordon says he’s been daing Mullany since his breakup with his wife; their divorce is not yet final. (Mullany’s married but separated too, Fenske says.)

It looks like the mayor had to put out a press release about the relationship after Fenske started nosing around. Here’s how the Arizona Republic plays it:

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon on Tuesday asked the city attorney and a former Arizona Supreme Court chief justice to review his political ties to consultant Elissa Mullany, the woman he is now dating.

The request came after The Arizona Republic and another media outlet inquired about the relationship and whether Mullany was benefitting from any taxpayer dollars.

Note the lack of grace with which the Republic acknowledges its competition. My issue with this isn’t so much not naming the New Times as with the clumsiness. Good journalism should handle various issues consistently, and it shouldn’t leave obvious questions in readers’ minds.

A lot of stories are pursued by different news outlets at the same time. It’s appropriate to say, in those cases, “The mayor released the information after news organizations started querying the office about it.” But if they are going to note that one other outlet in paticular is doing the asking, the paper should name it.

Why did it not name New Times? Maybe it’s because Fenske had a lot more information.

The Republic trumpets its “review” of the matter … and shares it with readers in three paragraphs.

Fenske’s piece is 1500 words long, and more than forty paragraphs. And it has a lot of evidence of the positively continental attitudes of some of the major players in the story:

Mullany, who was then known as Elissa Peters, was divorced from her first husband, Aldon Terpstra, in December 1998. She married James Mullany five years later, in October 2003. She has two young sons.

A former City Council staffer, James Mullany now works for former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson at his development company, Old World Communities/ Berkana Townhomes. Thanks to an appointment from Gordon, he’s also on the city’s Deferred Compensation Board.