Guest Editorial

BY STEVE LAMAR | MARCH 19, 2014

Thugs abound in Cave Creek

Bookmark and Share

STEVE lamarWell, it didn’t take long for Vice Mayor Adam Trenk, “Trenkster,” and his best pal and long time supporter TC Thorstenson to make the news again. Can’t wait to see the spin from Mayor Francia on this one.

Yes indeed, the Trenkster and his partner TC Thorstenson had a big week last week. Poor TC gets popped for DUI, assault, and indecent exposure. Our vice mayor violates state law by making fraudulent entries and a forging a signature on a recall petition and does his best to intimidate a young volunteer, recent pharmacy graduate who was collecting your signatures for the recall of his slate (Durkin, Spitzer, Monachino). He then brags about it on Facebook to boot. According to Trenkster,” the recall is just a joke,” so apparently he is above election laws and canons of ethics and can do whatever he wants to stop it. Interesting defense strategy. We will have to see how that works out for him.

No real irony that the signature Trenkster forges on your recall petition is that of the actor best known for his role as Tony Soprano. I guess Trenkster wanted the young volunteer to be reminded that he has some strong New Jersey connections. Tough guy that Trenkster.

Is this the kind of conduct by our public officials and their operatives that citizens of Cave Creek should support?

You see Trenkster bought the election with the help of TC, and an assortment of dirty trick operatives funded by his New Jersey support base, and he is just a tad petulant that many of us don’t understand he and his pals have the right to do whatever they please in Cave Creek.

A great example is the Trenk slate’s expansion of the plastic mini bill boards to include even Carefree Highway. Lots of car dealers drooling over that. We citizens have the audacity to notice that the chrome horse monuments that are coming are not exactly a great fit with the low end rusty metal mini billboard poles with construction grade galvanized fasteners and that chrome horses and tacky billboards sold to car dealers really don’t have anything to do with the true heritage of Cave Creek. One assumes this is the Trenkster version of where the Wild West lives.

We have the audacity to keep asking why they have abandoned our trail system and have done nothing to further the purchase of our open space when we are getting lots of billboards and chrome horses.

Even his glibness Mayor Francia will be challenged this week in drafting a nice bulletin in the Cave Creek Coyote explaining to us that Trenkster and TC’s little adventures were planned to get publicity for Cave Creek. Or in the alternative, that we should be open hearted as, “boys will be boys.” Of course we pay for the fliers.

Mayor Francia may well be drafting a resolution urging citizens not to judge these fine pillars of our community until Bar proceedings, and the criminal justice system have had a chance to get to the bottom of these little bumps in the road. If history holds true, Mayor Francia will announce that the success of the Fiesta DaysTM Rodeo, and next year’s Wild West Days hinges on this fine public servant and business man getting their names out there in the public arena, (no pun) even if they had to break a few laws and canons of ethics to do it.

In the final analysis our ever obsequious mayor would be right about two of his new best friends ... they are just being what they are ... forget about it.

So neighbors, I hope this lifts your spirits, and puts a positive light on what could be viewed by some misguided citizens of Cave Creek as just more disgusting behavior by an elected official and one of his dirty trick operatives.

I am one of those misguided citizens.

Trenkster and Mayor Francia love to characterize anyone in favor of the recall as Sonoran News pawns. Let’s examine that. The Trenk Slate’s most vocal detractors are a former Vietnam veteran and retired United States Army Col., a long time well respected Cave Creek pharmacist, a Cave Creek school board member, a gifted artist, a former Senior Litigation Counsel for the Arizona Attorney General, a highly successful Cave Creek realtor, and a long time Republican Party official and successful business man, and former chair of the Cave Creek open space committee. Behind these more vocal citizens are the hundreds of not so vocal concerned citizens who have signed recall petitions to date, and will continue to support the return of Cave Creek government back to service and integrity.

Misguided minions ...... really? We are seeing grassroots democracy in action by citizens who have worked long and hard for the love of Cave Creek.

Time will tell if Trenkster is right that the recall is a joke. My faith rests with the good citizens of this town who will answer the call at the polls, and release Cave Creek from the Trenk slate strangle hold.