BY LINDA BENTLEY | FEBRUARY 5, 2014
Setting the record straight on the recall
Trenk is calling the recall effort by concerned citizens who find his leadership unpalatable the ‘Toxic Sonoran News Recall’
CAVE CREEK – Despite Vice Mayor Adam Trenk’s claims in his e-mails, web posts and his latest mailer, Sonoran News is not conducting a recall.
He claims Sonoran News wants to waste money on a recall and “restore the regime that drove the town $60 million dollars (sic) in debt.”
Sonoran News has never made any such assertion.
Trenk is calling the recall effort by concerned citizens who find his leadership unpalatable the “Toxic Sonoran News Recall.”
A well-organized group of Cave Creek citizens have initiated recall efforts against Trenk and his fellow slate councilmen, Mike Durkin, Reg Monachino and Charles Spitzer.
Trenk and the council members who voted Trenk in as vice mayor are the sole reason for the recall.
They are the ones who voted in favor of Trenk’s motion to oust former Town Manager Usama Abujbarah as their first order of business after being sworn in and install Trenk’s friend Rodney Glassman, an inexperienced politician with an extremely limited work history in any capacity.
Not only did they vote to hire Glassman at the same rate of pay they thought Abujbarah, with 14 years experience as town manager, was earning, they gave him a raise when they learned Abujbarah was making more at the time of his termination, despite Glassman’s agreement to work for the lower rate of pay.
Not only did they raise Glassman’s pay, they extended his contract by six weeks since he was unable to complete the tasks he was hired to accomplish because he started them too late.
It is no secret Trenk and his fellow slate members were supported by Gerald Freeman, Sonoran News Publisher/Editor Don Sorchych’s next door neighbor who has been suing Sorchych going on nine years.
And it’s no secret Sorchych and Abujbarah became good friends despite their opposing political views and they had lunch together weekly.
Trenk apparently based his decision to oust Abujbarah on his association with Sorchych and Abujbarah’s refusal to end that friendship to appease Trenk.
It is also no secret to anyone who has read Sorchych’s editorials that Sorchych doesn’t support Trenk.
Trenk implies the recall effort is about Sorchych and Sonoran News, when, according to the political action committee (PAC), Cave Creek Caring Citizens (4-Cs), which is conducting the recall of Trenk, Durkin, Monachino and Spitzer, there are seven specific reasons.
For starters, they believe they’ve been ripped off for $90,000 by their vote to hire Glassman, who had absolutely no experience to run the town.
The slate also campaigned on a platform of fiscal responsibility, complaining the town’s budget of $17 million was too high.
However, when all was said and done, they unanimously approved the budget prepared under Abujbarah’s watch without cutting a dime, while approving what 4-Cs considers frivolous expenditures, including $80,000 for road maintenance software and $20,000 for stainless steel horse monuments.
The PAC also believes the town is wasting money on public relations stunts and self-congratulating newsletters.
The largest reason cited is the $3 million lawsuit filed against the town by Abujbarah for what appears to have been an improperly crafted motion by Trenk that rolled in numerous other items that were not properly agendized.
The PAC says Scottsdale threatened litigation when Trenk came up with the idea to challenge Scottsdale for its registered trademark, “The West’s Most Western Town.”
Instead, council voted in favor of Durkin’s suggestion, adopting Deadwood, South Dakota’s (and numerous other places’) motto, “Where the Wild West Lives.”
Meanwhile, according to 4-Cs, council is planning to disrupt 28 years of hard work by volunteer citizens as a payback to those who supported their fraudulent campaign and Trenk’s personal vendettas.
The February 2014 edition of Arizona in the Saddle contains an editorial by Trenk.
At the end of the article, it states “Trenk of the Trenk Law Group, PLC, practices in the areas of equine law, land use, public policy, government relations and real estate law.”
However, there is no firm registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission under the name Trenk Law Group, PLC and trenklawgroup.com redirects to the Rose Law Group, where Trenk, who was admitted to the State Bar of Arizona in February 2011, is shown to be employed.
In the interim, amid questions as to where Trenk actually resides, two of his neighbors in Scottsdale have come forward to say Trenk and his wife live in a home on 70th Street in Scottsdale, not in Cave Creek, and which records indicate was purchased in February 2011 under the premise to their mortgage lender the Scottsdale home would be owner occupied.
