Carefree’s Proposition 404 not forgotten, strongly supported
By Curtis Riggs | April 22, 2009
Direct election of mayor to be decided on May 19
CAREFREE – With all the hoopla over incumbent withdrawals and write-in candidate add-ins it is easy to forget a proposition, which could drastically alter the workings of Carefree town government, will be decided in the May 19 election.
Town Councilman Bob Coady’s Proposition 404, which calls for voters to directly elect their mayor instead of having them chosen by the sitting town council, will be on the May 19 ballot.
Coady’s measure, opposed vigorously by the rest of the council, impacted town government months before it ever made it on the ballot. Mayor Wayne Fulcher, Vice Mayor Lloyd Meyer, and the rest of the council took turns abusing Coady over his proposition in late 2008 and the early months of this year.
Coady has long maintained he never would have started the proposition process if Fulcher would have extended him the courtesy of placing the direct-elect issue on a council agenda for discussion. Instead Fulcher, and the rest of the council floated their own ballot measure (Prop. 403) in March, which called for doubling their council terms from two years to four. It was defeated handily on March 10.
Coady is confident Prop. 404 will pass “overwhelmingly” on May 19.
“People want control of their government, not the other way around,” he said, adding he never had any doubt about the wording of the proposition despite the claim by his opponents the proposition is a “procedural mess.”