Mayor Francia
You gave a public invitation for direct responses to your acknowledged poor performance in your last PR release. I am taking you up on your public invitation, with a public response. It seems a bit self serving that you would expect citizens of Cave Creek to respond to a public request in private.
First, your public assessment of recall "rumbling around Cave Creek" is an intentional understatement. You wouldn't be talking about it if it was anything less than a roar. That roar is the sound of a perfect storm moving across the horizon incoming to starboard, Mayor. You should be concerned whether your cruise ship of new friends is sea worthy. You might consider putting on your life jacket in case the life boat is full.
I don't understand how you could continue to assume the citizens of this town who have made the consistent long term effort to shape it and plan for its future are dupes. Your new friends ran a very expensive and utterly despicable campaign. Now you have joined forces to trash the reputation of our town with self serving political stunts, irresponsible spending and the complete politicalization of town hall. Did you really expect that people of substance, thoughtful, committed people, who have loved (verb) this town for decades, were going to quietly watch you and your new pals dismantle it?
Some people get sucker punched and lay down. Responsible Cave Creek Citizens got sucker punched, but they are getting up and fighting for the future of our town.
So, Mayor, please don't invite us to town hall so you and Trenk can tell us what you think we want to hear. Don't invite us to council meetings so your small, vocal group of town hall watchers can boo and belittle us.
Public records reveal you and yours are doing absolutely nothing on the important work needed to preserve and enhance the rural, naturally beautiful, genuine heritage of this town. The discovery about what has gone on behind the scenes is just beginning. The penalties of perjury and court sanctions may transform you all into the transparent leaders you all are pretending to be. Time will tell.
Until then expect your performance as a public official to be a public debate as our forefathers envisioned, rather than folks listening quietly to empty promises behind closed doors.
Steven LaMar
Horseman and Citizen of Cave Creek
4,100 miles in three months
Life is just full of interesting little surprises. The latest financial information on the town website shows that one Cave Creek staff member is charging an average of $778 of your tax dollars per month on his personal car. The math on this one is interesting. This equates to driving some 1,377 miles per month or spending about 20 percent of his time, every business day, driving his car. And, guess who this is? Mr. Rodney Glassman. No wonder the town staff has no idea where he is all day. In the first three months of the fiscal year, he has spent more than one and a half times the amount budgeted for the entire year. Of course, we all knew he was a great financial manager! The former Town Manager spent only 14 percent of that amount. I guess we could ask the Interim Town Manger to investigate this matter, but no, come to think of it, this is the Interim Town Manager. Another fox joins the slate in the Cave Creek henhouse. Hang on to your wallets!
Hani Saba
Cave Creek resident
Walgreen’s Pharmacist
Councilman Trenk
It’s impossible to comprehend the hypocrisy of a person who would run for town council as a nonresident backed by outside support and outside money, create lies about every conceivable issue, castigate his opponents in the most dishonest and disrespectful terms, drag his dishonest bobbleheads along with him and after being elected, publicly fire an honorable man in the most dishonorable manner then ask the town council to support his resolution asking the council, media and citizens for civil discourse, respectful communication, hands off his recklessness and no recall election. He is beyond a joke. Trenk has always been aggressive in telling his supporters and opponents alike who they can and cannot talk to, which will make the impending civil rights lawsuit a very dicey proposition for him and a budget buster for the town – and you cannot unring that bell. Trenk is immature, paranoid, irresponsible and reckless – a self serving politician and I use that term in the most disrespectful manner.
Bob Williams
Cave Creek
Tax on Internet purchases for Carefree citizens?
As a former Carefree Councilman for 12 years, I was intrigued to learn that Carefree was considering a “User Tax” AGAIN.
A “User Tax” would be a tax imposed on all purchases made by Carefree citizens via the Internet.
During my tenure as a Carefree Councilman, a “User Tax” was an agenda item given serious consideration by the then sitting council. Yet, after lengthy discussion, council voted against this form of tax in Carefree. You may ask, “Why would the council not support such a tax that is utilized by many other towns?” The answer is simple. Carefree, unlike other communities, consists of a majority of retired and elderly citizens. Many do not drive, many are handicapped or homebound. These are our neighbors and friends; they are totally dependent on the Internet to purchase necessities (including medications). That prior town council believed that under the circumstances, implementing a “User Tax” would be prejudicial to a large part of Carefree’s population.
Carefree’s demographics have not changed. I would ask citizens to consider the reasons that a prior council voted against a “User Tax,” and to remember that you too may one day fall into the same category. If you come to the same conclusion as we did, then please contact the Carefree Council and let them know that you do not support this type of discriminatory tax. You can contact them at [email protected] or 480-488-3686.
Bob Coady
Former Carefree Councilman
Scottsdale’s Bond Election vote is history
The dust has settled and the rhetorical hyperbole has become silent…or has it? Obviously, the winners are Scottsdale Councilmembers Littlefield and Phillips who warned the majority on the council they were placing too many projects in the bond package and stated the voting public would reject the bond. The biggest winners are the homeowners in Scottsdale (safe for another year).
The losers were individuals and organizations who supported or contributed to the pro-bond campaign, i.e., Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce, Core Construction, Scottsdale Charros, Nationwide Mutual Insurance, Barrett-Jackson, Mayor Lane and Councilmembers Klapp, Korte, Milhaven and Robbins. The last two are up for re-election next year. I wonder if they would like to place the next city bond election on the same ballot as their re-election bid.
With the current skepticism and distrust of politicians being at an all-time high, this defeat should have come as no surprise to the so-called establishment politicos. Instead of trying to figure out why this happened, the Chicken Littles are still squawking. Take for instance what the city’s Bond Committee chair, then Preserve Scottsdale’s Future chairman, former city councilman Wayne Ecton, had to say about the defeat, “It’s going to tremendously affect our ‘quality of life’ (the new buzz phrase used by the tax and spend progressives) and the tourists will go other places.” I especially enjoyed his pitch that voting to raise your property taxes would keep them lower. Evidently I wasn’t the only one confused by his comments.
The biggest loser is the Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors. They spent an unprecedented $100,000, which only propagated the myth of the “Rich Realtors” being pawns of the developers, on a losing campaign. That myth is a mischaracterization of the membership of SAAR. Most Realtors are like any other self-employed individuals whose interest is making a living for themselves and/or their families. I’m not sure if that myth bothers the “leaders” at SAAR; maybe we’ll find out when they get back from their convention in San Francisco (on the membership’s dime). But, it did get the attention of inmannews, a real estate and technology news source. According to inmannews, “the public reaction to Realtors’ support of the bond measures may have led to their defeat.” SAAR was also thrown under the bus by bond proponent Wayne Ecton who stated, “We had theoretically some people helping us and they screwed up.” I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall at the Realtors’ national convention.
As far as I can tell, the only thing SAAR got for its $100,000 was a divided membership, allegations of influence peddling, perceptions of backroom dealing, a fine for not reporting financial contributions in a timely manner, incompetence, unabashed arrogance, and cries of intimidation regarding push polls to its members.
I am a SAAR member who wants to know how this foray into politics came about and turned into such an unmitigated financial and public relations disaster for SAAR.
Tom Mason
Past President (2004) SAAR
BREAKING! Something monumental
It appears that the Divider N Chief, the Usurper, the forger and the liar posing as an American President is very soon to be discovered and uncovered. Our friends at Give Us Liberty, long in the struggle to expose Obama for the Communist fraud he is, has posted information from PP Simmons that surely has Obama and his criminals in a panic.
With aide and support from Conservative talk show hosts, the Republican establishment, the Socialist Democratic Party and its Propaganda wing, the Main Steam Media and the corrupt justice system, one might be lead to believe that Obama has successfully shut up and shut down any attempt to expose his felonious activities. But, one might be wrong.
Something big is about to break. Something monumental and far beyond the scope of forgery and arrogance. Mike Zullo has not been shut down, he has not been cowed into silence and he has not stopped his investigations. These past two weeks information and facts to back up what he has uncovered, have been solidified. In the words of PP Simmons, monumental! Here is his exact quote:
“This entire affair is now much bigger than the birth certificate.
It is much bigger than you ever imagined … This is monumentally huge.”
Why is TPATH reporting this now, before Zullo comes forward with what he has? Well for one thing, good Patriots have had a rough several weeks; a little morale boost, something to look forward to, in the words of Jackie Mason, "couldn't hoit."
Even as we witnessed a phony conservative get re-elected in New Jersey, another Governorship stolen by the Socialist Democrats in Virginia, the embarrassing implementation of the "Unaffordable Health Care Act," Iran being given a green light to complete its nuclear weapons program, the signing of a UN Treaty designed to further collapse our Constitution, and Israel being threatened with sanctions, Mr. Zullo was hard at work, very dangerous work, which will explain why the forgeries had to be propagated. We have always been told, "the cover up is worse than the crime." Not this time. Whoa! Not this time.
This could be fun as all of us who care about the Constitution, all of it, watch the pundits squirm back into the picture trying to explain why they ignored and belittled We the People for so long.
Stay tuned Patriots, stay tuned.
Dwight Kehoe
TPATH
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As the ObamaCare rollout staggers along as a colossal failure, it's hard to figure out which was the bigger whopper President Obama told the nation to sell this lemon of a law.
"ObamaCare will bring down the deficit."
"If you like your health insurance, you can keep it."
President Obama repeated this falsehood 36 times in public.
Now you and I are finding out what the President's words are really worth.
You see, millions of Americans have received letters in the mail informing them their health plan has been canceled because President Obama judges he knows what health insurance each American should own.
As Americans are shoved into the federal health exchanges, their eyes are popping out at the sticker shock of the premium increases.
And those are just the "lucky" ones who can navigate the failed website.
While the administration tries to conceal the pitifully low number of ObamaCare enrollees, news reports stated that a grand total of six people were able to sign up on the first day ObamaCare launched.
Now the President and his crew will blame the epic failure of the ObamaCare rollout on "glitches."
Donald, you can fix the code on a website. But what can't be repaired is the simple fact that a government takeover of healthcare will force Americans off their plan, explode costs and cripple the quality of care.
That's why I hope I can count on you to stay active in the fight by signing your "Repeal ObamaCare" petition right away.
Your petition will let my colleagues know you're still demanding they take action to halt the ObamaCare train wreck.
In Liberty,
Senator Rand Paul
P.S. The ObamaCare rollout is a complete fail.
Millions of Americans are losing their health insurance while only a handful were able to enroll in the program.
Please sign your "Repeal ObamaCare" petition and keep the heat on the Senate to provide Americans relief from the ObamaCare train wreck.
Is Obama a pathological liar or just a tool of his handlers?
When NY Times Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Duranty got caught falsifying stories that ignored millions of Ukrainians starved to death by Stalin, he calmly stated: "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs."
Today Barack Hussein Obama II apologized for people losing their previous health insurance and trusted doctors. He knew he was lying about keeping our policies just as he lied during the primary with Hillary when he told us that the biggest difference between him and Hillary was that she was FOR MANDATORY HEALTH INSURANCE and he was NOT!
If the American people don't vote out every congressman and senator who voted for ObamaCare, then America deserves the imminent economic calamity which is fast approaching, compliments of the Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs. We are being harvested folks – like cows. Moo!
Sincerely,
Joseph DuPont
Towanda, Pennsylvania
American battle monuments
A few days ago I returned from a 3,000 mile two week trip through Germany and France and Luxembourg. I had gone over there with a fellow veteran who was interested in battlefields but, because there is little to see at most battlefields we wound up spending our time mostly at American cemeteries (10 of them in all, including the one at Normandy and the one in Paris). The reason I write is because I was totally unaware of these cemeteries (except for Normandy) and they are spectacular. Another benefit to a tourist like me is that they are located in rural areas, mostly France, and the countryside is absolutely beautiful to drive through.
But the most impressive part is how these cemeteries impressed upon me the sacrifice our military made in World War I and II. These cemeteries are impressively maintained (sometimes 10-14 full time landscapers) and only very slightly visited. At some cemeteries there were only a handful of visitors the entire day. The word about these spectacular monuments needs to get out. I encourage European travelers to include them in travel plans.
More detail is available at the web site of the American Battle Monuments Commission. http://www.abmc.gov/home.php
Roy Miller
Phoenix
