BY LINDA BENTLEY | JANUARY 28, 2015
Trenk’s do as I say not as I do policies
It wasn’t the newspaper that branded them as a slate; they promoted themselves with campaign advertising as a slate
CAVE CREEK – Council passed another one of Vice Mayor Adam Trenk’s resolutions during the last council meeting, dubbed “Creeker Commerce,” with only Councilman Thomas McGuire dissenting.
The program, as it was described by Trenk, uses town resources to encourage citizens to shop locally by entering and tracking receipts and giving out prizes to those who generate at least $50 in sales tax revenue each quarter.
Trenk stated he has numerous options to purchase gas between Cave Creek and his employment in south Scottsdale.
Under this program, Trenk said he would be encouraged to purchase his gas at Circle K or at the Chevron Station, if he were eligible to participate, which he’s not as a member of council.
Meanwhile, Trenk spends his advertising dollars to promote himself and his employer, Rose Law Group, in out of town periodicals.
He recently took out a full-page ad in “Arizona in the Saddle,” a Phoenix publication, in which he touts himself as an equine lawyer.
This is on the heels of his three-quarter page ad in “Arizona Horse Connection,” a Chino Valley publication, which also did a four-page cover story about Trenk.
Meanwhile, Trenk snubs “Bridle & Bit,” a competing equestrian periodical, which is published right here in Cave Creek, just like Sonoran News, the official newspaper of Cave Creek, which he not only snubs but appears to aggressively encourage the town to do the same.
The installation of his unqualified friend Rodney Glassman as interim town manager resulted in the town pulling advertising and cessation of all legal ads from that time to date.
So, as Trenk, who is on the chopping block in the upcoming recall election along with his fellow recalled slate councilmen Mike Durkin, Reg Monachino and Charles Spitzer, continues to tout having “made local government transparent and accessible,” he has made sure citizens are kept in the dark.
Perhaps the reason he doesn’t want to advertise himself as an equine lawyer in local periodicals is because of a negative review he received in Avvo, where clients can post reviews of their lawyer and their experience.
Trenk’s former client rated him across the board for trustworthiness, responsiveness, knowledge and for keeping him informed as “poor.”
He wrote, “Not an equine lawyer!”
Elaborating on his experience with Trenk, the former client wrote,
“If you need an equine attorney do NOT go to Adam Trenk. I tried to use him for a dispute over some horses I had. This attorney did not understand anything about equine law. He did not understand anything about horses or daily activities involving horses or horsemanship. When I tried to explain how horses and the race horse business worked Adam told me to ‘shut up’ and walked out on our meeting. This resulted in me having to forfeit my court case and lose by default. Save yourself some time and lots of money and find yourself another equine attorney!”
Trenk has brought forward all sorts of resolutions to tell citizens what they should be doing, such as shopping local, supporting solar energy (Rose Law Group represents numerous solar clients) or placing unenforceable ordinances on the books to regulate etiquette and/or what people can or can’t do with their private property.
Trenk believes this is the way to keep Cave Creek “moving forward,” as stated on his mailer to “reject the recall.”
Claiming they have increased the efficiency of town operations and are responsibly managing town finances, Trenk, and the three recalled councilmen that have aligned themselves with Trenk, voted to spend $20,000 on the stainless steel horse monuments on each end of town, while citizens on the west side of town continue to wait for the town to make water lines installed years ago live, at approximately the same cost, so they can stop hauling water and hook up to the municipal water supply.
However, “increasing efficiency of town operations” is not the job of council in a town manager form of government, which is how the town of Cave Creek is set up.
Council is tasked with hiring a qualified town manager who is, in turn, responsible for hiring, firing and overseeing town operations.
Trenk and his fellow slate members conspired to hire Trenk’s friend, the inexperienced and unqualified Rodney Glassman as interim town manager even before they voted to terminate former Town Manager Usama Abujbarah.
This was a position that never needed to be filled, as the post automatically fell to the town clerk, by statute, until a permanent replacement could be found.
Not only did they hire Glassman at the same rate of pay as the former town manager with 14 years experience, they voted to give him a raise and extend his contract for an additional month and a half because he was unable to complete the tasks he was hired to perform.
Without getting into Glassman’s outrageous expense and mileage reports, the mere fact they voted to hire Glassman at all proves they are incapable of “responsibly managing town finances.”
So, as Trenk pads his resume with feel-good resolutions and ordinances, telling citizens what he thinks they should or shouldn’t do, he does the opposite.
And, while Trenk’s mailer claims he and his fellow slate members have “worked to attract business to our community,” he doesn’t support businesses that are already here and his only claim to fame is an article in a Phoenix newspaper where Trenk stated he wanted to have Greasewood Flat relocate to Cave Creek, despite them being very vocal about remaining in Scottsdale.
Trenk’s claims about Sonoran News branding him and his cohorts a slate is grossly inaccurate.
It wasn’t the newspaper that branded them as a slate; they promoted themselves with campaign advertising as a slate.
Mike Chutz promoted his favored candidates, which included all four, as a slate.
Prior to being elected to council, Trenk and his fellow slate members aligned themselves with Chutz, an out-of-towner from Pennsylvania, who raised money to hire an attorney from the Rose Law Group, to fight a development project (Enchanted Canyon), which never stood a snowball’s chance in hell of getting approved by the sitting council.
This is apparently Trenk’s credentials for “preserving our desert rural lifestyle.”
Meanwhile, Trenk, who not only didn’t meet statutory residency requirements to run for office, apparently doesn’t meet the statutory residency requirements to remain in office.
Why would Creekers want out-of-towners from Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Scottsdale to run their affairs?
The recall is March 10 with ballots in the mail Feb. 12 for the all-mail election.
