My View
By Don Sorchych | November 5, 2008
• Elections 2008
• Town Layoffs
• Bobby Hernandez's DMX autograph
• Upcoming local elections
This editorial is being written on Saturday, Nov. 1 and will go to press at 10 a.m. on Nov. 5, one day after the election. I pray John Sydney McCain is declared our president that day. Yes, I know about the Electoral College.
The point is, my usual follow up on elections, “Election postmortem” will be delayed at least a week, or maybe two, depending on whether my Unit 21 antlered mule deer hunt, beginning Nov. 7, is successful.
One of the more disgusting blackouts in the recent presidential debates was the invisibility of the issue of border control and illegal alien presence in the country. Both sides, pandering to the Hispanic vote, acted as if this very major threat to our economy and sovereignty didn’t exist.
Well, McCain in spite of his pro-amnesty views would have gained votes had he taken a hard line about closing the border, and dealing with the illegal hiring of illegal aliens by businesses and individuals. These actions would have resulted in an exodus of illegals for lack of employment. But if that didn’t work, McCain could ask himself what his favorite politician, Teddy Roosevelt, would have done. Roosevelt would have said, “Gentlemen, sharpen your bayonets.”
In this he is a loser. Today’s Zogby poll shows 72 percent of likely Latino voters will vote for Obama and 22 percent for McCain.
But there is no lack of local news, some of which has been set aside because of the vastly important national and state elections.
Tow
n layoffs
Linda Bentley’s front page article about town layoffs is a sign of the times. Seven Cave Creek employees have been let go. Although the town’s sales tax revenue has shown year to year gains and remains fairly robust, other sources of revenue are predictably down.
Town Manager Usama Abujbarah has a huge HDTV screen in his home and makes nightly and weekend visits to news and financial channels. After distilling the information he concluded the economy will continue to decline. He decided to get ahead of the curve by making a series of personnel reductions as well as other belt-tightening measures.
Bobby Hernandez
The good news is Deputy Town Marshal Bobby Hernandez was laid off. I would have preferred Hernandez had been terminated for cause after his railroading of Gary and Jeri Rust but neither Town Marshal Adam Stein nor Abujbarah saw it that way.
There are two comments in Your View in this week’s edition objecting to Hernandez’s latest lack of common sense.
Hernandez was in Cave Creek’s municipal court acting as bailiff when he decided to take a picture of DMX, the rapper, in court for multiple violations. Hernandez took the picture, printed it out, and got DMX’s autograph. Hernandez has privilege to take pictures for court purposes, not for personal use. Since the autographed picture is town property, one has to wonder whether Stein demanded return of the autographed photo when he checked him out. We’ll watch for its sale on Craig’s List and eBay.
Upcoming local elections
Packets have been available for wannabe council members and mayor since Oct. 1. So far 15 packets to run for council have been pulled, but none for mayor except Francia’s. The deadline to return the applications to town hall is Dec. 10.
The dark side of Cave Creek politics is trying desperately to get someone to run against Mayor-for-life Vincent Francia. So far no takers.
Incumbents intending to run are: Ernie Bunch, Kim Brennan, Dick Esser, Gilbert Lopez (vacillating), Thomas McGuire, and Grace Meeth.
Potential challengers include: Jim Bruce, Bob Chartier, John Ford, Steve Lamar, Reggie Monochino, Ralph Mozilo, Shea Stanfield, Adam Trenk and John Vannucci.
Last election there were no real choices, and, as a result, the incumbents were shoo ins.
Not so this election if the majority of those who pulled packets run. Four to five of those listed are dark side or dark side leaning candidates whose platform will be to eliminate Town Manager Usama Abujbarah. They would love to eliminate Francia also, but so far no one wants to go up against Francia’s formidable majorities in past elections.
Since the dark side will run as a slate, they will be easily identified.
Sonoran News has a tradition of holding forums every election cycle. It will be difficult with this many candidates to hold a meaningful forum. Doing the math, it would take a minimum of three hours and maybe four to do a credible job. Tell me voters; are you willing to sit for as much as four hours to vett the candidates? Let me know.
Carefree, to my knowledge, has not yet made packets available. Maybe they are waiting for King-Maker Hugh Steven’s advice, or should I say “order.” Or maybe a Kiwanis majority vote?
Carefree elections, I have often said, are decided by HOAs, churches, Desert Forest Golf Club, Kiwanis, other social clubs and a couple of really nasty PACs.
So if the incumbents run they will be elected. So far, Bob Coady has overcome these extreme obstacles by running a first rate recycle program, however the powers that be want him out. But Carefree’s version of the dark side is frustrated by Coady’s popularity.
The King Maker was overheard at Kiwanis admonishing Vice Mayor Lloyd Meyers for not kicking Coady off the recycling programs in order to geld his popularity.
Now Carefree is considering four year terms to replace the current two year terms. Maybe changing demographics have convinced the schemers that upstarts who ran previously won’t be squelched in the near future.
The town would have benefitted with bright candidates like Attorney David Smith, or financial experts like John Traynor and Steve Warsaw. But these candidates might vote NO on issues held dear by the power elite. 7-0 votes are the Holy Grail in Carefree, which is why Coady is detested by the PAC leaders and the sheep that follow them.
My view is if the U.S. Congress must stand for election every two years why shouldn’t cities and towns?
Cave Creek had four year terms and an appointed mayor until the Buffenstein administration taught them to vote for mayor and council members with two year terms.