A Sonoran Truth Editorial Opinion by Grace Meeth, Former Councilwoman 1997-2009, February 16, 2015.
The four challengers in the recall election have made sure that the public will not get a chance to attend a public forum of all of the candidates. A public forum occurred on Thursday Feb. 12th, but the challengers did not show up. They have set up another forum, for the Rancho Manana Homeowners Assoc., but it is a private forum and cannot be attended by the public. Now this poses a problem for the incumbents, as there are four of them and any meeting that they all attend has to be publicly noticed. So they informed the homeowners’ association that the meeting would have to be public or they could not all attend. The response: there will be two private meetings instead of one, with select candidates at each.
Susan Clancy, Dick Esser, Steve LaMar and Mark Lipsky have accused elected officials of violating the public trust and forced a recall election, yet they do not have the integrity or the courage to address those elected officials in a public forum. The citizens of Cave Creek deserve better, as do the four hard-working elected officials who are being unjustly vilified. In a newspaper interview Susan Clancy was asked why she felt the recall was necessary. Clancy’s response – “I’m going to stay away from that at this point”. To have the audacity to accuse someone of something of this magnitude, and then not be able to speak to it, or seek the opportunity to go one-on-one with that person in public, is tragic in itself.
This recall is not about performance; a recall was threatened before Mike Durkin, Reg Monachino, Charlie Spitzer, and Adam Trenk ever took the oath of office. This recall is about whether Cave Creek will be governed by the duly-seated elected officials that you voted into office, or people who throw out unsubstantiated accusations and prefer to do the people’s business behind closed doors.
Mike Durkin, Reg Monachino, Charlie Spitzer, and Adam Trenk have represented Cave Creek with honor, transparency and inclusiveness. They deserve your support and vote to continue to do the job you elected them to do.