After a 40 year career starting as an engineer for DuPont and ultimately president of an engineering firm, my wife and I knew that we were retiring to Arizona. We wound up purchasing a home in beautiful Carefree, which was probably in part due to the allure of the town’s name. However, living in Carefree never meant that we didn’t ‘need to care’. The upcoming August election is an excellent example. We need to be informed on the candidates running and the issues. On this, I must say that I am extremely disappointed and dismayed at Proposition 472 which would reduce the reliability of our water system as well as Prop 473 calling for term limits which would ban people from ever serving again after four years, including a retroactive provision for terms served prior to this year’s election. Prop 474 is the best compromise, calling for staggered term limits (half the council elected every two years), ensuring that we keep important and historical knowledge on Town Council.
As an executive whose responsibility was to make the best possible decisions on a range of corporate and technical issues, I placed a premium on working with proven, experienced people. So, when I look at the incumbents who, in addition to their time and devotion in serving the Town of Carefree, have a wealth of experience as a CFO (Mike Johnson), a mechanical engineer/ MBA and instructor in finance at the college graduate level (Hatcher), a problem solver of water infrastructure projects for 40 years (Geiger), a regional executive of a life insurance firm (D’Aliesio), a marketing and communications business person (Kroyer) and then add a retired Director of Municipal Bonds at a world-caliber investment firm (Amoroso), how does their experience compare to the slate running against these people? That slate consists of only one person with any time on Town Council, another who is an airline pilot, a married couple (watch it….they are running with different last names….do you think we can get two separate and independent votes from them?) and lastly, an insurance broker. I cannot for the life of me see what this slate brings to the table. To add to that, while the one mayoral candidate challenger has been vocal in his criticism of the present Town Council, I have not seen any proposals from him.
The best way to show your ‘care for Carefree’ is to click on the link carefreeunity.com://carefree-candidates/ and read the responses to the same list of questions asked to each candidate. Before you do, recognize that while you will see answers from every one that I feel deserves our vote (Crane, Johnson, Hatcher, Geiger, D’Aliesio, Kroyer and Amoroso) you will find a response from only one on the slate of challengers. Judge for yourself which candidates to vote for and how to vote on the propositions. I will vote “No” on 472 and 473, “Yes” on 474. Don’t fall victim to those who insult our intelligence.
Jeff Kerner
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