Trenk Tells the Truth

 4-C’s, the Sonoran News proxy published 7 “reasons” why Cave Creek needs a new council in its paper. Here they are and here is why they are just 7 heaping piles of ________. Note the “reasons” copied verbatim from the SN are numbered, and the facts are detailed below each.

1. Rodney Glassman and Vice Mayor Adam Trenk ripped off Creekers for $90,000. These four councilmen are not qualified to hold office after hiring Trenk’s friend with no experience to run the town.

Rodney Glassman was hired as interim town manager after the termination of SN publisher’s friend Usama Abujbara. Glassman was paid the same salary Usama was paid, less benefits. His experience and skills greatly benefited the community. For more information visit:http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=195292. The Slate said the $17,000,000 budget was too big. These four councilmen either misled or lied to the voters. They said the budget and debt were too large while campaigning. Once elected, they passed the previous council’s budget without a single cut or change.

State law requires the budget to be passed and approved by July of each year. The budgeting process takes six months, and the Council was sworn in on June 3. Accepting a budget does not mean approving every expenditure budgeted for. In fact this council acted to eliminate unnecessary expenses. We shut down the Town’s poorly run Court, and merged court systems with neighboring Carefree saving the Town hundreds of thousands of dollars this year and each year to come. We have reduced employee head count by 7%, and have worked to identify inefficiencies in operations so that when we produce our own budget this year it can be scaled back.

3. $80,000 wasted on road maintenance software to nowhere. Apparently Glassman’s $500 per month in mileage was not adequate to include driving around to figure out what roads need to be graded or repaired.

Prior to the new council’s tenure there was no inventory of Town infrastructure, nor plans for its maintenance or improvement. This expenditure was necessary in order to be able to adequately plan for future growth. In order to be able to assess development and impact fees on new construction, State law requires the Town to have infrastructure improvements plans which are used to predict expenses and set the fees. The law provides that such plans must be prepared by qualified professionals. See ARS § 9-463.05. Having professionals prepare plans cost money. The data collected as a result of the expenditure will be used to develop the final infrastructure improvement plans, and those plans will be used to calculate future fees and lead to the capture of revenues necessary to support our infrastructure.

4. $20,000 wasted on stainless steel horse signs. Does the town really need to spend money on oversized hood ornaments? You decide.

The money for the monument sign was money cut from the budget for the Taste of Cave Creek event to mark the entrances of the community. After a nationwide search, a local artist was chosen. The first public art in Cave Creek, a Town so rich with an eclectic mix of culture, will be embody the spirit of the community with “two of a kind” rearing horses. You decide.

5. $3 million employment lawsuit. Vice Mayor Adam Trenk and his three confidants fired the long-term town manager and informed citizens in an e-mail that the town was safe from litigation. The town is now spending thousands in legal fees and has exposed residents to a multi-million lawsuit.

The lawsuit was brought by former Town Manager Usama Abujbara. This suit is part of the SN strategy to undermine the Council’s authority and create controversy to fuel the recall. After all 4-C leader Hani Saba is a long time friend of Abujbara’s, and his cohort Susan Clancy is SN “reporter” Linda Bentley’s best friend. Regardless, the Town Manager was an at will employee terminated without cause and willfully forfeited his severence to pursue this baseless lawsuit.

6. Wasting taxpayer $$$ on public relations stunts and self-congratulating newsletters. Scottsdale threatened litigation when these four tried to steal their federally registered trademark – “The West’s Most Western Town.” Next they stole “Where the Wild West Lives” from Deadwood.

The cost to the Town/Tax payer of the “Cave Creek Scottsdale Challenge” was exactly ZERO dollars. The results speak for themselves. Newsletters posted online and stuffed into water bills come at a steep discount relative to the thousands of tax payer dollars that used to get funneled into the SN to publish “announcements” under the previous administration.

7. Cave Creek Trail System and General Plan Abandoned: The slate is working to disrupt 28-years of hard work by volunteer citizens as a payback to those that supported their fraudulent campaign.

Responding to 1-6 was necessary because facts were twisted and taken out of context in an attempt to make a point. This assertion is so utterly baseless there is no reason to even attempt to rebut it.

Adam M. Trenk