"Thomas Jefferson said a democracy is dependent on an informed citizenry. I don't care whether it sounds corny or not. It's the truth." -Jim Lehrer
Carefree Truth
Issue #1094, July 6, 2024
Issue #1094, July 6, 2024
Herbert and I wholeheartedly endorse Councilman Vince D'Aliesio as our first choice for re-election to the Carefree Town Council. We firmly believe that he is trustworthy and has only the good of the greater community at heart.
Beyond that, our other choices for the three open seats coincide with those of Carefree Unitiy's, as do our reasons for rejecting the other candidates, so rather than reinventing the wheel, we are passing on their excellent newsletter.
Herbert recorded the candidate forum that was sponsored by the Carefree/Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce and hosted by the Spirit in the Desert Retreat. We sent out the link previously, but here it is again for those who missed it.
Beyond that, our other choices for the three open seats coincide with those of Carefree Unitiy's, as do our reasons for rejecting the other candidates, so rather than reinventing the wheel, we are passing on their excellent newsletter.
Herbert recorded the candidate forum that was sponsored by the Carefree/Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce and hosted by the Spirit in the Desert Retreat. We sent out the link previously, but here it is again for those who missed it.
Carefree Unity Editorial
Three Carefree Town Council seats will be selected by the voters in the upcoming primary election on July 30, and the Maricopa County Recorder is scheduled to mail out ballots on July 3. Our Candidate questionnaire is now posted to the Carefree Unity website, and we encourage everyone to read the positions of those candidates who have responded.
Today we are announcing our recommendation for the following candidates for election:
...Vince D'Aliesio.......Stephen Hatcher....Colleen Rose-Scurti.
Council members D’Aliesio and Hatcher are incumbents seeking reappointment. They have differing styles, but both have been effective in advancing the interests of the Town and its residents.
Mr. Hatcher often looks for compromises among various stakeholders to resolve areas of contention without compromising essential elements. We believe the recent compromise effort to refer a new General Plan to the voters began with Mr. Hatcher’s analysis of the common ground between opposing viewpoints during the unsuccessful approval effort in the June Council meeting.
Mr. D’Aliesio is especially active in moving issues forward, as he did between the June and July Council meetings. A previous successful effort occurred during the re-zoning process of Carefree’s other Special Planning Area, at the corner of Cave Creek Road and Carefree Highway.
Both are also willing to make tough decisions when necessary and were instrumental in the successful implementation of the Carefree Water Consolidation Project. We believe residents can trust both candidates to continue to act in their best interests.
We believe Ms. Rose-Scurti has shown herself to have an outstanding approach to public service. Since moving to Carefree she has been consistently engaged, attending many public meetings, volunteering for town support activities and committees, and consistently and constructively giving feedback to the Town. She has strong interpersonal skills. Most impressively, she has prepared for this opportunity by meeting with council members and staff, by studying the public record with initiative and in detail, and by being objective enough to change her positions when discoverable facts dictate that course. We support her because we believe she has a core desire to advance the interests of our residents and a determination to continue refining her positions and her approach.
We appreciate the willingness of all the candidates to make the commitment to run for an important and unpaid public position. In general, however, we cannot recommend the others for various reasons.
In our opinion, Nikisa Azizi is simply a poor match with Carefree residents on the issues. She has a positive personality and an admirable focus on the environment and sustainability, but we have found many of her approaches to be unrealistic for this community. She moved to Carefree fairly recently, so we encourage her to volunteer for Town service in various ways and get to know us better before considering how to most effectively adapt her ideals to our community.
We appreciate the communication efforts of Diane Roth, but believe she is a poor fit for the Council, both on issues and approach. After appointment to the Boulders HOA Board in 2021, she supported numerous legal actions against the Town of Carefree to try to stop the construction of the Tom Darlington Reservoir on former HOA property, actions which were universally unsuccessful but ultimately cost the Town hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and delayed the Carefree Water Consolidation Project by about a year. She ran for HOA re-election in 2022 on an explicitly anti-Town platform but lost. We believe her positions in this election retain some of the same anti-Carefree government elements. In particular, she has repeatedly attacked Town staff in various ways, claiming that they are overpaid (they are not), and that they often act against residents’ interests (they do not). She has also said that employee reviews should become more extensive and should lead more often to termination.
Lon Johnson has a good communications style and a pleasing personality, but he supports some policies we believe will be unhelpful. Like Ms. Roth he seems to have aligned himself with a group that acts generally in concert to criticize and oppose the current Town government, for which the chief mouthpiece seems to be OurCarefree, the website and PAC that recently took out a back page ad in the Sonoran News that makes their approach clear. He has been a very active supporter of their effort to remove the Special Planning Area at the corner of Tom Darlington and Carefree Highway and advocates for tighter control by Council over the staff, apparently and specifically to limit staff ability to act with independent initiative. We thank him for his service as a Planning & Zoning Commissioner as well as for confirming to one of our members that it is fair to say one of his goals is to clean house among the staff at town hall. We cannot support his candidacy for the Council.
We believe this campaign has been unusually accessible to the residents. At this point several Carefree Unity members have had individual conversations with each candidate, which we take as a positive indication that all candidates are committed to being available and communicative with everyone. We commend the Carefree Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce for organizing the Carefree Town Candidate Forum on June 19, which was very well run and had a strong format (and we thank candidate Colleen Rose-Scurti for the suggestion to post it and for the link).
Finally, we thank all the candidates for being willing to campaign, often in the summer heat, for important community positions that carry important responsibilities but no financial compensation. Carefree is a small town with limited resources. We are sustainable only with volunteer community involvement.
Carefree Unity
Lyn & Herbert Hitchon
Prepared by Carefree Truth
Copyrighted
Visit our website at www.carefreetruth2.com If you know anyone who would like to be added to the Carefree Truth email list, please have them contact me. Feel free to share Carefree Truth with others on your list. Please support our Carefree merchants.
Today we are announcing our recommendation for the following candidates for election:
...Vince D'Aliesio.......Stephen Hatcher....Colleen Rose-Scurti.
Council members D’Aliesio and Hatcher are incumbents seeking reappointment. They have differing styles, but both have been effective in advancing the interests of the Town and its residents.
Mr. Hatcher often looks for compromises among various stakeholders to resolve areas of contention without compromising essential elements. We believe the recent compromise effort to refer a new General Plan to the voters began with Mr. Hatcher’s analysis of the common ground between opposing viewpoints during the unsuccessful approval effort in the June Council meeting.
Mr. D’Aliesio is especially active in moving issues forward, as he did between the June and July Council meetings. A previous successful effort occurred during the re-zoning process of Carefree’s other Special Planning Area, at the corner of Cave Creek Road and Carefree Highway.
Both are also willing to make tough decisions when necessary and were instrumental in the successful implementation of the Carefree Water Consolidation Project. We believe residents can trust both candidates to continue to act in their best interests.
We believe Ms. Rose-Scurti has shown herself to have an outstanding approach to public service. Since moving to Carefree she has been consistently engaged, attending many public meetings, volunteering for town support activities and committees, and consistently and constructively giving feedback to the Town. She has strong interpersonal skills. Most impressively, she has prepared for this opportunity by meeting with council members and staff, by studying the public record with initiative and in detail, and by being objective enough to change her positions when discoverable facts dictate that course. We support her because we believe she has a core desire to advance the interests of our residents and a determination to continue refining her positions and her approach.
We appreciate the willingness of all the candidates to make the commitment to run for an important and unpaid public position. In general, however, we cannot recommend the others for various reasons.
In our opinion, Nikisa Azizi is simply a poor match with Carefree residents on the issues. She has a positive personality and an admirable focus on the environment and sustainability, but we have found many of her approaches to be unrealistic for this community. She moved to Carefree fairly recently, so we encourage her to volunteer for Town service in various ways and get to know us better before considering how to most effectively adapt her ideals to our community.
We appreciate the communication efforts of Diane Roth, but believe she is a poor fit for the Council, both on issues and approach. After appointment to the Boulders HOA Board in 2021, she supported numerous legal actions against the Town of Carefree to try to stop the construction of the Tom Darlington Reservoir on former HOA property, actions which were universally unsuccessful but ultimately cost the Town hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and delayed the Carefree Water Consolidation Project by about a year. She ran for HOA re-election in 2022 on an explicitly anti-Town platform but lost. We believe her positions in this election retain some of the same anti-Carefree government elements. In particular, she has repeatedly attacked Town staff in various ways, claiming that they are overpaid (they are not), and that they often act against residents’ interests (they do not). She has also said that employee reviews should become more extensive and should lead more often to termination.
Lon Johnson has a good communications style and a pleasing personality, but he supports some policies we believe will be unhelpful. Like Ms. Roth he seems to have aligned himself with a group that acts generally in concert to criticize and oppose the current Town government, for which the chief mouthpiece seems to be OurCarefree, the website and PAC that recently took out a back page ad in the Sonoran News that makes their approach clear. He has been a very active supporter of their effort to remove the Special Planning Area at the corner of Tom Darlington and Carefree Highway and advocates for tighter control by Council over the staff, apparently and specifically to limit staff ability to act with independent initiative. We thank him for his service as a Planning & Zoning Commissioner as well as for confirming to one of our members that it is fair to say one of his goals is to clean house among the staff at town hall. We cannot support his candidacy for the Council.
We believe this campaign has been unusually accessible to the residents. At this point several Carefree Unity members have had individual conversations with each candidate, which we take as a positive indication that all candidates are committed to being available and communicative with everyone. We commend the Carefree Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce for organizing the Carefree Town Candidate Forum on June 19, which was very well run and had a strong format (and we thank candidate Colleen Rose-Scurti for the suggestion to post it and for the link).
Finally, we thank all the candidates for being willing to campaign, often in the summer heat, for important community positions that carry important responsibilities but no financial compensation. Carefree is a small town with limited resources. We are sustainable only with volunteer community involvement.
Carefree Unity
Lyn & Herbert Hitchon
Prepared by Carefree Truth
Copyrighted
Visit our website at www.carefreetruth2.com If you know anyone who would like to be added to the Carefree Truth email list, please have them contact me. Feel free to share Carefree Truth with others on your list. Please support our Carefree merchants.