My View
By Don Sorchych | April 14, 2010
Phoenix calendar | Town courts | Kiwanis | Donation comments
I got a letter from Jim Raymond, a veteran and neighbor of Bil Canfield, our cartoonist.
He wrote: “Please find enclosed a copy of the official city of Phoenix 2010 calendar. What happened to Pearl Harbor? Now we recognize Islamic New Year in its place. I wrote a letter to the Arizona Republic knowing they wouldn’t print it. I hope you consider this as disrespectful as I do.
“As a member of Post34 Cave Creek American Legion, I have posted a copy of this calendar disrespect on its bulletin board.”
It is not only disrespectful by the city of Phoenix; it is downright stupid, moronic, unpatriotic, thoughtless and unacceptable.
Leaving out the “day of infamy,” the attack on Pearl Harbor is bad enough but substituting anything Islamic shows the city’s disgusting diversity programs and Political Correctness gone crazy. The author of that calendar is lucky stocks and pillories are no longer used. The city of Phoenix should apologize in every available venue and redistribute a new and proper calendar, regardless of their shrinking budget. Just lay off a few administrators to pay for the new calendar. Start with the Diversity Department.
By the way Jim did send the December page from the calendar and sure enough, the December 7 box has “Islamic New Year” in it and nothing else.
Carefree court offer
During the recall election, GOBs, including Mayor David Schwan took great umbrage with any mention that the town was hemorrhaging financially. The walk away primary loser, ex-Councilmember Greg Gardner, was especially vocal and nasty on finances during Call to the Public, saying the town had sufficient cash reserves to last 25 years.
Schwan and his GOB buddies convinced voters the town had a rosy financial future. John Traynor, Schwan’s opponent in the recall election did numerous studies and e-mails pointing out the critical nature of town finances. Yet he was brutalized by the GOBs for having the audacity to criticize their mayor.
Now that the election is over, Schwan readily admits the town needs to deal with the town’s finances.
The attempt to absorb Cave Creek’s courts is instructive of the fact that even when supposedly trying to improve finances Schwan couldn’t resist an attempt to screw Cave Creek.
No?
Why then would any sane person accept a transfer of Cave Creek’s court to Carefree when Carefree is spending $110,854.74 and Cave Creek spends only $21,069.52 to maintain the court? The offer should have been to send Carefree’s court to Cave Creek, but why should Cave Creek accept a bleeding court?
And that isn’t all. Cave Creek pays Judge Preston $27,000 while Carefree pays Judge Skull $39,472. Carefree’s salaries and benefits are $258,562 while Cave Creek spends $98,844.
There is a whole lot more but what I have presented is more than enough to get the Carefree team to look for other victims to reduce their financial load. Perhaps they should go to Kiwanis President and Carefree Councilwoman Susan Vanik and seek a loan or donation. Kiwanis recently got a $2.5 million dollar contribution and is bragging of its distribution, including full-page color ads in the Arizona Republic and other such papers.
Another story proves the tight connection between Kiwanis and politics. Bob Coady is hosting a Earth Day (ugh) event and Town Administrator Gary Neiss suggested they combine their event with the Kiwanis breakfast which had been on the Kiwanis calendar for six months. Neiss felt the 500 or so people who attend the breakfast might attend their event as well. Coady agreed.
Apparently, when Kiwanis heard about the potential benefit they would bestow on Coady’s event, they canceled the pancake breakfast. Queen Bee President of Kiwanis and Carefree council member Susan Vanik said she was cancelling the Kiwanis Pancake breakfast so they wouldn’t interfere with the Earth Day event. Yeah right. They didn’t want to touch anything connected with Coady even when inspired by Neiss.
Coady’s Earth Day event will beneficial to the town of Carefree, yet Kiwanis played the political card, as they often do. And you wonder how Schwan kept his mayor’s seat?
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