It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Who you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you’re saying.” Enter the Carefree Town Council. The same council who completely ignored the wishes of the majority of Carefree residents on the character-killing, dark-skies-polluting, budget hotel; on the senseless $32M 30-year water project debacle (that benefits only 20% of the residents); and on the recent property tax scheme now suddenly wants to listen to residents via a community engagement initiative called “Community Conversations: Connecting with Carefree.” That is priceless! If they honestly cared to listen to the community, the Carefree Town Council already has multiple opportunities in place for connecting with and receiving feedback from residents: public comments at town council and P&Z meetings, one-on-one meetings, and email. Critical comments or opposing points of view clearly aren’t appreciated nor listened to at council or P&Z meetings, and many emails from engaged residents simply go unanswered. The long history of its 7-0 groupthink decisions has demonstrated a blatant disregard for the viewpoint of the majority and clearly demonstrates that this council doesn’t care to listen. And we are now to believe that suddenly the council cares about what the community thinks and that it is finally going to start listening? Balderdash! This new initiative is nothing but gratuitous virtue signaling by a town council whose past actions speak very loudly about who they truly are.
Mike Davitt
Carefree
