In a recent letter from the Carefree mayor these two concepts were employed by the author to further an agenda. The Peterson administration is not the first in Carefree to employ such tactics. The difference recently is the attempt at subtle smoothness with which the deceit and fear are delivered.
I know of no individuals planning to re-impose Term Limits, simply because Term Limits is the law in Carefree and has been since 2011. No court, no judge and certainly no deity ever ruled otherwise. Perhaps the mayor is listening to the wrong voices. You may have been deceived last year by the administration’s claim that a Superior Court Judge ruled that our voter-initiated Term Limits Statue was illegal. He did not and our law is not illegal. Only the mayor and his cabal want you to believe otherwise. The singular sleight of hand in play Mr. Mayor, is being dealt by you. Term Limits is the law, and the recent passage of HB-2721 puts teeth in that law, even if lack of character prevailed last year; it will no longer.
You say Term Limits would be detrimental to a small town. Really! The “Institutional knowledge” to which you referred may actually be a liability. We all know the truism that, “this is the way we have always done things.“ That is stagnation, not the power of imagination. And please spare us the nonsense that new council members need 2 years to learn the job. Most people are born with a reasonable degree of common sense and at least an average IQ. I believe that Carefree residents greatly exceed your limited expectations of them. I also trust that new council members will learn far quicker than your unsubstantiated claim. Institutional officials are a far greater liability than any imagined loss of “Institutional knowledge.”
Furthermore, there is nothing “plain and simple” about voting incumbents out of office. Get serious. The power of the bully pulpit is well known. Incumbents have a huge advantage over new candidates unless the incumbents attempt to put their hand into the voters’ wallet. If that happens, rest assured Carefree voters will take notice. Speaking of which, why have you denied a public records request for a copy of the report from the Engineering firm you hired to assess the take over of the water service to 526 homes? All Carefree residents are entitled to review it and I bet even Cave Creek would like to see it.
We certainly don’t need a mayor-for-life, or council members for life, no matter how highly the individuals regard themselves. Only a narcissist with an over-inflated ego could believe that large projects would fail without them. New faces, with another perspective and new ideas, might yield better and quicker results.
John Traynor
Carefree
