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Dear Citizens:
Tonight was a four hour council meeting. I can only hope that in the future, the mayor stream lines the agendas or allows us to bring bedrolls. Attorney William Sims gave council a crash course on open meeting laws, ethics, and public records requirements. There was an update on Black Mountain Sewer not having refunded hookup fees to Carefree Estates (33 homes) as agreed in 2007. As per the Town Attorney, it has been decided that to accomplish this refund, it would be best to include it with the paperwork for the upcoming rate request (58%). Council approved (6-0/Stavoe recusing himself) a new liquor license for the Blue Sky Restaurant. Council approved 5-2 (Coady & Stavoe against) installing high speed internet and have an architect design 8 Sundial Circle (this is the building the town had to have. Coady Comment: I voted against this item because there has been insufficient information on options available regarding the court, and because moving the town staff or court into this building would preclude any chance the town had to find tenants for this building.
Council Responsibilities:
Coady-Court, Green Initiative Gemmill-Streets, HOA/Homeowners Koteas-Water, Marketing & Communications Miller-Streets, Water, Public Safety Schwan-Finance, Court, Personnel, Duties of mayor Stavoe-Finance, P&Z Vanik-P&Z, Marketing & Communications
2009-10 Budget Update: While prior council
members congratulated themselves on offering a balanced proposed budget, this
budget was in fact a nightmare. The main problem was the anticipated revenue
income. It simply did not deal realistically with our stagnant economy.
Other factors that had to be included were losing the sole tenant in the newly
purchased town property, as well as the Conference Resort going Chapter 11.
While I as sure that some members of the past council were aware of these
issues, they chose not to make them public.
On the positive side, the new council has been meeting weekly to review and redo the budget. Thanks to the two new councilmen that have extensive financial background, we are making headway. In fact, I can honestly say that there has been more discussion and work on this budget than in the entire past 10 years I have served as a councilman. Budget facts: 1. The 09-10 is approximately $6 million, approximately 17% less than the 08-09 budget. 2.1 town position was eliminated (Town Gardens Horticulturist). 3. All charitable donations were eliminated.
Coady
Comment- Our Foothills Food Bank is really having a tough time
of it, and can use our help. You can drop off food donations at the food
bank, 6920 Cave Creek Rd, Cave Creek, Mon-Wed./9-12, Thur-Fri/1-4, Tues & Thur
nights/5-8. They accept monetary donations also. Please contact them at
(480)488-1145.
Planning & Zoning: Citizens interested in applying for the P&Z
Commission or the Subdivision Committee, may obtain applications at Town Hall
or download them from the town web site-
www.carefree.org
All applications must be submitted by July 24th. A special council meeting
will be held on Monday, Aug. 3, so that the council may interview all
applicants.
CALL
TO THE PUBLIC:
Various citizens spoke
out against the recall of the mayor (see the Did You Know section below).
SPECIAL PUBLIC SECTOR:
The Cave Creek Council approved
(6-1) to amend their General Plan allowing a Walmart on Cave Creek Rd, just
south of the Carefree Hwy/Cave Creek Rd intersection. This up zoning may not
be finished though, a group of Cave Creek citizens are working on a referendum
to allow for a vote of their citizens on this issue.
LAST
MONTH’S QUESTION OF THE MONTH:
Some citizens that were out of town for the summer did not receive their
requested early ballots till the day before the election. Did you receive
your ballots in a timely manner? If you did not, please let me know.
While I did not get a lot of responses to this question, I did get enough to cause concern. It appears that there were sufficient problems in receiving and returning ballots in a timely manner to warrant a longer time frame for our mail-in ballots. I admit that I was not aware of this fact myself, but after speaking with The Maricopa County Dept. Of Elections, I found out that for a ballot to be counted, it must actually be received by Elections prior to 7:00 PM on Election Day. The post mark does not count at all. So, in the future, if you are mailing from a distance or there is a delay in the mail, your vote could very well not be counted.
QUESTION OF THE MONTH:
To balance the upcoming budget, all charitable donations as well as a staff
position were eliminated. With this in mind, do you believe that the town
should be spending money for festivities to celebrate a 25th anniversary of
incorporation of Carefree?
DID
YOU KNOW:
Long time resident, Rod deSzendeffy, has initiated a recall of Mayor Schwan
for being “irresponsibly out of touch with citizens.”
SHERIFF’S SECTOR:
May stats for MCSO- 21 arrests,2 DUI arrests, 272 traffic summonses with 135
for speed. There were 0 noise citations issued.
EVENT CALENDAR
- P& Z Meeting- 7/13, 5:00 PM, Town Council Meeting-
8/4, 5:00 PM.
If you wish to contact me, be included, or removed from my email list for CAREFREE MATTERS, write me at BobCoadyaz@aol.com. Or, if your e-mail address should change, please let me know that too, so you can continue to receive CAREFREE MATTERS.
Councilman Bob Coady
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