Cast your vote with a big NO
Dear neighbors in Carefree, Bob Coady asked me to share my views with you on the two Carefree Propositions on the 2014 Election Ballot. I’m honored to do so.
Like you I treasure the privilege and the civic duty to vote. In our town it is so easy, with mail-in ballots. It will only take about 10 minutes to complete. Be very sure to VOTE NO on the two Carefree Propositions.
We do not want career politics in our town anymore. Two years are just right to judge if they are doing the job we expected. If they are not doing that job we can vote them out. Don't be fooled by the argument that it takes most of the first year to get started. If a council member is doing their job, doing the research and talking to the residents ... they can hit the street running. If they pledge to be conservative, only to then join the "spend it 'til it's gone crowd" we then can get rid of them in short order.
Nothing about 4 year terms will lead to more efficiency or better plans to keep 'Carefree as Carefree'. Extended terms would only lead to a very small click of people changing the total fabric of our town, if they were to continue bad practices. Consider the lack of transparency we are now seeing from the present Town Hall ...who knows what is happening in the back rooms and secret meetings?? This past Monday evening during the Economic Development status meeting stakeholders and residents got a taste of how town leadership is failing us. We need to keep elected officials accountable to us every two years.
Friends, like me, VOTE AND VOTE NO on Propositions 488 & 489 for the sake of Carefree.
Jim Van Allen
A conservative Carefree resident
and former Councilman
A movie theater would greatly benefit Town Center
I am writing in response to an article that appeared in the September 17 issue of Sonoran News. We have been out of town for two weeks and just read the article (Carefree stakeholders not on board with council’s plan). I certainly agree with them and consider their “economic development projects” to revive the Town Center much more important.
As a Carefree resident for the past thirty something years, I have often given counsel and advice to various city officials including mayors. When Mayor Ed Morgan asked me for my opinion on the new master plan which would put the park next to Easy Street and replace the parking with additional parking next to the Post Office, I told him it would be a disaster. And after meeting with the “planner,” architect and Mayor, we convinced them the change was vital.
As an architect responsible for over 2,000,000 sq. ft. of commercial retail and mixed use projects including Fashion Square, Paradise Valley, Superstition Springs, Fiesta Mall and el Pedregal, located in our Metroplex and more than a dozen major mixed use projects across the country, I guess you could say I know my business.
I am very concerned about our community vitality not only downtown, but the el Pedregal and Scottsdale and Carefree Hwy. segments. The owners of el Pedregal essentially “ran off” the tenants at the onset of a major retail recession with much higher rental rates. The owners, a major New York investment conglomerate, are mainly interested in flipping properties. They should have kept Westcor as the leasing company and now should use Russ Lyon Realty. There are conference facilities in this project which I’m sure could be used by the city.
In all these endeavors I never charged the city a penny for any costs including printing and always responded in a timely manner. What puzzles me is why the city has never used my experience but always turn to outside “consultants.” But enough belly aching.
Recently I met with Carefree’s new planner and gave her my ideas for the reuse of existing 2-level vacant space in the Los Portalas building for a 2 or 4 screen movie theater like the one at Fashion Square. The planner kept mentioning that the building had a large Italian restaurant which it does not, only shallow shops on the upper level along the street. The two story space would lend itself to two theater spaces or possibly with the inclusion of vacant space on the west interior even four. I do believe bringing a theater to the center would greatly benefit both retail and restaurants.
Anyway, I have rambled on too long.
Sincerely,
Gene Watson
Carefree
Carefree end-run at voter nullification
It is believed by some that reality for the American people is determined and created by the news and entertainment media. It appears that Carefree’s newsletter-publicist and devotee to the mayor has set about to construct a sort of localized reality. That reality is when the mayor or certain members of the town council don’t like the outcome of a vote on an initiative, even though the initiative was passed by an almost 2-to-1 margin by the Carefree electorate, it can be turned into a straw-man example of voter ineptitude. Correcting that voter “mistake” can then occur by simply placing new initiatives on a future ballot.
I am referring to Propositions 488 and 489 that would nullify the 2011 vote that adopted Prop. 421. “Carefree [Selective] Truth,” is out with two recent issues castigating those who have made arguments in opposition to Props 488 and 489.
The list of statements in the newsletter are superficial and completely irrelevant to providing a rational justification as to why there now exists an urgent need to nullify voter-approved Prop 421.
Why do we need to double the period of time in office for council members from 2-years to four-years?
Why would voters want to provide an opportunity for town council members to remain in position in perpetuity?
Why wouldn’t 488 and 489 render moot the term limit Prop 421 that addresses 2-year periods in office, with a maximum of six successive years? Should we believe, as the Carefree [Selective] Truth press release suggests, that the term limit statute passed in 2011 and addressing 2-years periods in office will now be interpreted, magically, to apply to 4-year terms?
The newsletter’s editor claims that Props 488 and 489 were not initiated by anyone on the council. Really? Might a more deviously clever process have occurred? Should we believe that no members of the council could possibly have whispered in some citizen’s ear that longer terms for existing council persons might benefit certain special interests in the town?
Who else benefits from longer periods in office, other than those council members who want to avoid accountability, or perhaps other than some unidentified special interests?
And doesn’t the trumpeting of a “yes” vote by the newsletter provide a backhanded rebuke to the inferred “uninformed” majority who foolishly passed the 6-year term limit proposition in 2011?
The newsletter and an accompanying comment written by a 2013 unsuccessful contender for a Carefree council seat, infer that every council member is now automatically replaced every two-years. This is an absurd allegation and an obvious attempt to misinform and obfuscate the discussion. If the voters approve of a council member’s behavior, that person can be easily retained by voting every two years to keep him/her in place. There won’t be any “gap in leadership,” as the letter-writer and the newsletter assert.
And I want to inform the Carefree Truth newsletter that I am a reader of the Sonoran News and I take comfort in knowing I am among the proud Carefree intellectual underachievers and negative thinkers, as you have judged us to be, who voted loud and clear for the existing 2-year periods between elections and for six-successive-year term limits in 2011.
Freddy Bentine-Brown
Carefree
‘No Labels’ Trenk
I, for one, was absolutely delighted to hear that Trenk has joined the No Labels Foundation in Washington, DC. He never lived in Cave Creek anyway so he might just as well go to DC and fraternize with his own kind – disgusting politicians. Further, with his co-conspirator bobbleheads Spitzer, Durkin and Monachino, they have almost irretrievably damaged Cave Creek and I can’t imagine why that experience was attractive to the No Labels group. One really has to wonder how someone like Trenk who has zero professional achievements, no life experience and a record of disaster in Cave Creek is qualified to contribute anything to a supposedly serious think tank. Trenk’s skills seemed to be limited to pretending to live in Cave Creek while living elsewhere, hanging around the Cave Creek bars, hiring lawyers, costing the town hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, being vindictive and spending his trust fund. Nonetheless, he evidently sold himself to No Labels with the same lies that got him elected in Cave Creek. I’m actually torn on his departure – on one hand I hope he sticks around long enough to get recalled along with Monachino, Durkin and Spitzer and properly run out of office, but I suspect he sees the recall handwriting on the wall and has seized upon this deal to ooze his way out. Go Trenk (literally)! And, take your conspiratorial and disastrous bobbleheads with you.
Hani Saba
Cave Creek
Elections, propositions and judges
The 15 elected committeemen in our precinct, Granite Mountain, are trying to get in touch with the conservative voters, Republicans and Independents, to share our research on the candidates and propositions that are on the ballot. Because we are often asked about judges, in particular, we’ve put together the results of our discussions, research and consensus. This is a suggestion for those who want it, nothing more. Feel free to share this info with friends.
• PROP 122 - YES - Amend the Arizona Constitution affirming state’s rights over the Federal Government
• PROP 303 - YES - Terminal patient’s right to try experimental drugs - no cost to tax payers
• PROP 304 - YES - Raising pay for State Legislators from $24,000 to $36,000 - no increase since 1998 - yet controversial
• PROP 480 - NO - $1.4 billion property tax increase - a well intentioned upgrade on a variety of needed outpatient facilities but we have unknown costs on the Obamacare Medicaid Expansion voted in last year. The expansion is estimated at $2.2 billion over the next 8 years. It will escalate after that as the Federal Government passes on the costs to us.
Judges are appointed by governors. They are voted on to RETAIN their appointments. We checked and cross checked all the judges according to published ratings of judicial standards, voting records and the ideology of the appointing governor. We recommend voting NO on judges with low ratings and liberal voting records. All judges NOT listed have conservative records. We recommend a YES vote for them. Our next governor will fill in the vacancies.
We recommend a NO vote on the following:
• Supreme Court: Bales, Scott
• Court of Appeals Maricopa County:
Johnsen, Diane, Thumma, Samuel
• Maricopa Superior Court: Aimee Anderson, Arthur Anderson, Bradley Astrowksy, Janet Barton, Edward Bassett, Dawn Bergin, William Brotherton, Sally Duncan, Dean Fink, George Foster, Richard Gama, Warren Granville, Hugh Hegyi, Bethany Hicks, Joseph Kreamer, Daniel Martin, Rosa Mroz, Samuel Myers, Benjamin Norris, Suzanna Pineda, Gerald Porter, John Rea, Emmet Ronan, David Talamante, Randall Warner, Joseph Welty
• Cave Creek Unified School District: Angelica Petersen YES Cynthia Weiss YES - Both against Common Core
• Question 1 - YES - Prior voter approval of these bonds ($10million) was for new schools and buses. The Board now wants to make improvements to our existing facilities but needs voter approval for this change. There will be NO increase in your tax rate. The bonds proceeds are “on-hold” and on deposit with the Maricopa County Treasurer.
• Question 2 - NO - $30 million more and none of it can go to teacher salaries which must be addressed
• Maricopa County Community College Board: John Heep - YES Tracy Livingston - YES - Both conservative
• Scottsdale Council: Millhaven - Hill - Smith
People often ask “What can I do?”. Vote and make sure your friends and family do. We had only 27 percent turnout in the primary in August. If you vote by mail, your name is removed from the “robo” call list as soon as they receive your ballot. The AZ Republican Party would appreciate your input. They need to hear from us.
We’re all in this struggle together.
Arch McGill
Scottsdale
The Trenk void
It‘s exciting to imagine Cave Creek without our boy Trenk pretending to live here while continuing to damage the town and we can only hope he leaves for good. But a Trenk departure does present some interesting questions. For example:
• Who is going to tell Monachino how to vote and what to do? He might have to dust off Grace Meeth again who used to give him all of his instructions while he was on the Planning Commission.
• Who will hire the lawyers to try to keep his vacuous bobbleheads Spitzer, Durkin and Monachino from getting recalled?
• Who will hire the lawyers to harass Susan Clancy and disenfranchise the voters in the community as well as for the school board?
• Who will illegally sign the recall petitions then use that illegal act to invalidate them?
• Who will ‘plead the 5th’ in court when challenged on his illegal actions?
• Who will text instructions to the town lawyer during council meetings?
• Who will be TC Thorstensen’s new best buddy?
• Who will continue his “office hours” where Trenk fiddled with his cell phone the entire time if he bothered to show up at all?
• Who will try to singlehandedly drink enough to keep the big box bars in Cave Creek afloat?
We can only ask that Trenk take Durkin, Spitzer and Monachino along to completely remove the stench from Cave Creek.
Bob Williams
Cave Creek
When slop is in the trough, all the pigs will gather
There is a saying “If you put the slop in the trough, all the pigs will gather.” As this applies to public spending it means that, if you propose to spend a bunch of taxpayer money, all the critters who want some of it will show up. This is the case with Proposition 480, the plan to throw nearly a billion taxpayer dollars at the Maricopa County Hospital. Even in today’s era of pork barrel spending a billion dollars is still a lot of money so the “Yes on 480 Committee” has generated over 50 letters in favor of the spending which are included in the information brochure sent to voters. I would simply suggest that voters “follow the money” and look at what the people and organizations who signed these letters stand to gain as their share of the one billion dollars.
Rather than throwing a billion dollars at the County Hospital, it should actually be sold or closed. There are so many other options now for medical care that the County Hospital is a dinosaur. Also, under Obama Care everyone is forced to have medical insurance, and when you combine that with the fact that no hospital is allowed to turn away patients at emergency rooms, there is no need for a hospital for indigents, as once was the case. I suggest that taxpayers give themselves a tax break on this boondoggle and vote “NO” on Proposition 480.
Roy Miller
Phoenix
It is within the power of the electorate
Do American voters realize that on November 4 they will be asked to vote for either a dictatorship or freedom?
Those are the actual, hidden choices. If voters do not recognize that the country is under total attack by forces within and vote accordingly, they may lose their freedom, security and lives.
It’s within the power of the electorate to save us all. But will they do it? Are they both moral and informed enough? Will they choose to live under the rule of law (The Constitution), or will they choose to live under lawlessness and totalitarianism?
May of our citizens are uninformed, low informed or misinformed. They do not realize this election may be America’s last chance to survive a ruthless enemy.
This enemy wants to take power away from the people and give it to itself. Its name is totalitarianism. We, the people, should vote to keep the power where it’s safer, with the people, away from the enemy.
There is guidance for all of us who want to know best how to vote. It’s called The Constitution. The enemy’s main attack is focused on The Constitution’s first two amendments. By checking each ballot’s issue and candidate’s position against the first two amendments, we can keep our vote within the rule of law and feel secure in our voting.
Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II: A well regulated Milita, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Vote for issues and candidates who support The Constitution, especially the first and second amendments.
Sincerely,
Arden Druce
Camp Verde
Operation Vote Blue
The DNC, headed by renowned half wit Debbie Wasserman Shultz, has just released it's latest "get out the vote" campaign. It's called "Operation Vote Blue" which is easy to remember as it's the color of our faces as Barack Hussein Obama continues to crush our private parts while draining the life, ambition, rights, honor and dignity out of Americans everywhere.
With no further delay ... Here is "Operation Vote Blue"!
"Remember in November ... if you think electing an unaccomplished, unprepared, lying, inept, lazy, race baiting community organizer to the White House was a good idea please do your bit and help to destroy OUR country a bit more by voting for a liberal progressive one more time."
Thank you for your inattention and lack of good judgment. The DNC - Your DemocRATic National Committee.
Tom Carbone
Cave Creek
Krasnii
As Pennsylvania Germans (so-called Pennsylvania "Dutch") are fond of saying, "Ach, it wonders me!" It wonders me too why Repugnicans have adopted the color red, while Democraps have gone for blue. Red has always been the Marxist color. Russians, when praising something, label it krasnii (red) since red is beautiful.
The color red does not reflect the political philosophy of the Repugnicans ... although I wonder why it does, indeed, fit such crypto-Socialists as McCain, Graham, Christie and Rubio – all RINOs.
Please reverse the colors!
J-P. A. Maldonado
(Independent voter)
Prescott Valley
