A Phoenix family paid $500 for a "living tribute" — a tree planted and maintained in memory of someone they loved — and has a plaque with no tree behind it. A resident who dutifully checks for leaks four times a year, per the Mayor's own conservation pledge, is subsidizing six City-owned golf courses that used 1.14 billion gallons of water in 2024 alone. A preserve fund built on the promise of an independent audit financed golf-enterprise debt instead. Each is a specific, documented promise attached to money the City asked for or accepted — and each promise was broken on different terms.
The Living Tree Celebration program collected $500 per tribute at North Mountain and Papago Parks, promising a tree "cared for and maintained as a heritage for the future." GOOD|GOAT has documented plaques at both parks with no living tree behind them — trees that didn't survive their first dry season, or were removed without notice to the families who paid. The plaques remain. The obligation the City accepted alongside the money did not.
The Phoenix Parks and Preserves Initiative is a one-tenth-of-one-cent sales tax that Phoenix voters renewed in 2008 on three conditions: a restricted purpose, an independent oversight committee, and an annual public audit, split 60 percent parks and 40 percent preserves. In a hold letter served on the City on February 10, 2026, counsel for GOOD|GOAT concluded that 3PI funds — including a $1.85 million Papago Golf Course debt payment — were used to retire golf-enterprise debt, a purpose never disclosed to the voters who approved the tax, and that the mandated annual audit has been replaced with a management-controlled attestation the City itself does not call an audit. A companion public-records request for the underlying general-ledger detail, filed February 12, 2026, drew PDF printouts instead of the structured export the City's own accounting system produces natively; GOOD|GOAT gave notice on April 30, 2026 that it would treat the response as a denial.
The same asymmetry shows up in water. The City's conservation pledge asks residents to check for leaks and adjust sprinklers for rain. Its own six golf courses used 1.14 billion gallons in 2024, draw on groundwater sixteen times as heavily as the City's drinking-water system, and have reported zero reclaimed water in twenty-five years — all figures the City itself reports to state regulators.
GOOD|GOAT is pursuing each of these with the tool that fits it: a pre-litigation hold letter and public-records demand on 3PI, a published comparison and a specific ask on water — a public reclaimed-water transition plan for the six courses — and an open call for documentation on the Living Tree Celebration.
If your family paid for a Living Tree tribute, or you have photographs of a plaque with no tree behind it, tell us — we're building the record.
3 Matters
Pre-litigation hold letter served on the City of Phoenix. Counsel concludes 3PI funds were used for golf-debt retirement contrary to ballot language, and the voter-mandated annual audit was replaced with a management-controlled attestation.
The City of Phoenix asks residents to check for leaks four times a year and adjust sprinklers when it rains. Its six municipal golf courses used 1.14 billion gallons in 2024 alone, lean on groundwater 16 times as heavily as the City's own drinking-water system, and have reported zero reclaimed water in twenty-five years. GOOD|GOAT is calling on the City to adopt a reclaimed-water transition plan for the six courses it owns.
Phoenix families paid $500 each for a living tribute to a loved one. The plaques remain at North Mountain & Papago Parks. Many of the trees do not.
