Guest Editorial
BY Steve LaMar | MARCH 4, 2015
Follow the money: It was true in Pottersville, and it’s true in Trenk Town
Well folks, if we have learned nothing in the last couple years of Trenk Town (Cave Creek’s version of the Pottersville that befell Bedford Falls) it is this; if you want to uncover the motive behind the Spitzer/Trenk slate you have to get behind the closed doors and follow the money.
The challenge we have as citizens of a small town is that most of us don’t have the time, energy, and resources to keep on top of the self servers who work in the shadows. We have work, kids, gardens, horses, chores, health issues, and all the day to day stuff we need to work at to live our lives in a very competitive, challenging world.
The guiding principle and public policy behind the open meeting laws, public notice laws, and election laws against defrauding and forging public documents; laws that prohibit the use of public funds to promote private business of elected officials; laws that prohibit use of public funds for election purposes; and the right of citizens to recall self serving politicians is a recognition that politicians always have the advantage over the public in the cover-up game.
I have a life experience that gives me a bit of an advantage in ferreting out the closed door dealings of self servers like Spitzer/Trenk and the gang. For the first thirteen years of my legal career I served in as a prosecutor in the Major Felony Bureau of the County Attorney’s office, and in the Organized Crime Division of the Attorney General’s office. I received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for my fight against prison gangs including the Aryan Brother Hood, and the Aryan Nations Church. Later I received the Attorney General White Hat Award for my work as lead council in securing the largest civil settlement in the history of Arizona from a notorious developer who defiled a National Monument in Pinal County Arizona. This historic environmental recovery was declared one of the top ten public accomplishments of the decade by the Arizona Republic.
What we know is that Trenk has defrauded public records, taken the 5th in open Court on the record, then admitted his fraud on the record. We know his followers including Spitzer used his lawyer and his arguments to avoid this recall. We know a Superior Court Judge has ruled that there is relevant, admissible evidence that the Sptizer/ Trenk gang violated open meeting laws and public notice laws from the beginning of their reign to serve the vengeance of their core operatives. We know they have had more executive sessions than any other Cave Creek Town Council including the last meeting before the election. We uncovered their plot to abandon the Morning Star wilderness trail as payback to their political operative. We exposed their plot to cut off water to Rancho Manana. We exposed Trenk’s promotion of the Rose Law firm through his Cave Creek Town Council email. We exposed Spitzer/Trenk and the gang’s use of public monies to promote themselves in the Cave Creek Coyote. We exposed the Rancho Manana cover up funded by tax dollars. We know Trenk’s law firm sues their political opponents and our town for their friends and supporters. The latest is the $10,000,000 Rose Law Firm suit brought for Trenk supporter and friend TC Thorstenson. We exposed the plan to rezone 110 acres of our annexed open space to high density so developers can double the size of a resort on land that we have fought for years to preserve. We have exposed their continued use of ‘executive sessions’ behind closed doors to direct the outcome of law suits they have caused, and now those brought by Trenk’s law firm for their political supporters.
It has been a hard, long and winding road. Six hundred strong you have stood up for Cave Creek.
I stood in front of an historic old church in Santa Fe Christmas night around midnight in a beautiful white Christmas snow storm and prayed for the strength to keep up the fight for our town. People were out walking arm in arm, strangers and neighbors exchanging Christmas greetings. You could feel the human connection set in this lovely authentically preserved town. It was a classic Bedford Falls Christmas experience....I was praying for the strength to bring that feeling back to Cave Creek, for the words to let you all know how much I care, and for your help and support to turn Cave Creek back from Trenk Town that feels more like Pottersville every day. It comes down to this: I know I have to be there to know what is really going on. In the end all I can say is Cave Creek needs our help.
