Mr. Jones & Members of the Rancho Mañana HOA

Thank you again for the opportunity to address your questions yesterday.  As I mentioned during the introductory comments, this recall leaves you with two options. The recall challengers, who represent a hysterical brand of confrontational politics on the one hand.  On the other, the incumbents including myself, Reg Monachino, Mike Durkin, and Charles Spitzer, who ran in 2013 because we recognized there was something amiss in the Town’s leadership and have been working diligently to fix things since taking office.

Neither Mr. LaMar nor Mr. Esser put forth a single policy proposal of their own during their multiple terms on council, yet they voted to approve tens of millions in debt expenditures to acquire and overbuild infrastructure beyond our community’s needs.  They then never saw to ensuring that infrastructure was maintained.  The result has been that our administration had to do over a year of triage on utility systems.  Thus, it took some time to first identify the costly and unnecessary delivery of potable drinking water to the Rancho Mañana golf course, in excess of the treated wastewater the course needs to irrigate. I apologize that the messaging from Town Hall was not clearer on this issue at the outset. But, rest assured the golf course is not going to turn brown as a result of identifying and correcting this problem.  However, the Town will save hundreds of thousands of dollars and we will conserve millions of gallons of precious water.

You won’t read about it in the Sonoran News, but over the last year and half this Council has been working for you. You heard my recall opponent talk about the transparency, maintaining infrastructure, and protecting desert rural zoning.  Her statements were vague pleasantries, unsubstantiated by a plan of action. The fact is this council has taken measurable strides in all of those categories.

Yesterday a question was asked about posting information, such as the maintenance plans, online so that it was easily accessible to the public.  I wanted to take the opportunity to send this email and provide you with some links to demonstrate the actions of this council.  All of this information is currently available online, although admittedly it may be difficult to find if you don’t know where to look. I pledge to try to fix that as we work through the more pressing needs of the Town.  In any case, my hope is that this information helps to demonstrate that details are in fact publicly available, and that my opponent’s statements are symptomatic of how disconnected the recall challengers are from reality.

• Transparency
  • Standardized Public Records Request Portal Created at the Direction of this Council Fall 2013: http://az-cavecreek3.civicplus.com/publiclogin.aspx?dn=www.cavecreek.org&txtRedirect=RequestTracker.aspx&strAction=Login&newURL=%2fforms.aspx%3ffid%3d65
  • Ordinance Expanding the Public Notice Area for Zoning Changes: http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=19181
  • Council Meeting Video Now Available Online at the Direction of this Council as of Fall 2014: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/town-of-cave-creek-council-meetings
  • Town Check Register Available Online as the Direction of this Council as of Fall 2013: http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=17767
• Responsible Governance:
  • Ordinance removing Politics from the office of Town Manager: http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=18985
  • Policy granting one time $20.00 Credit to utility customers who switch from paper to electronic billing: http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=18821
  • Granted Special Use Permit to Cave Creek Museum giving them legal land use status (they had been asking for that for over a decade with no action from previous Councils – Passed October 7, 2013) http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/FileStorage/FBCF15E6F6E4487081A1C8C673979777-SU-13-03%20-%20Staff%20Summary%20-%20TC.pdf
  • Water Master Plan adopted December 2013 (note the previous iteration of the water master plan was not publicly vetted or adopted by the Council): http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/FileStorage/B16A5F8052A24C18BCDE7B0B6A153361-Cave%20Creek%20Water%20Master%20Plan%20Final%20Reduced.pdf
  • Pavement Management Program Commissioned by this Council during fall 2013 and Presented June 2, 2014: http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/FileStorage/ABCAC21EDDF54827A13A6D0D45AB6A18-Cave%20Creek%20Draft%20Report_May%202014.pdf
    • I will further point out the following on the issue of roads maintenance.  The recall challengers are quick to point out the deteriorated conditions of the roads.  This council has been in office for twenty months.  Roads do not deteriorate over the course of twenty months, it takes years.  This Council has made it a priority to repair and maintain the roads, and is doing so in accordance with this plan.  A look at the meeting minutes from January 12, 2015 (found here http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=23080 PAGE 6 is where road discussions start) demonstrates that there is much work to be done in the remainder of this fiscal year on the roads, including line striping.  Moreover the Spur Cross wash crossing that was destroyed by flood waters in late September of 2014 did not take months and months and months to repair as indicated by Recall Challenger Lipsky.  It took 7 weeks, as it was repaired the week before Thanksgiving. The delay was deliberate according to my discussions with the Road Engineer, because to spend money on a repair when additional storms that could again damage the road were predicted would be wasteful, better to wait until the end of the rainy season.
• Protection of Desert Rural Lifestyle
  • Restoring Horse Privileges to Non-Conforming Properties with Desert Rural zoning designation larger than one acre: http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=21856
  • Notice to Prospective Property Owners (adopted Oct. 21, 2013): http://www.cavecreek.org/index.aspx?nid=390
  • Adoption of Specific Area Plan on CareFree Highway Corridor to encourage responsible commercial development that does not detract from the lifestyle of rural neighbors: http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=21167
• Trails
  • Ordinance adopted to protect the health safety and welfare of trail users: http://cavecreek.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=22971

Yesterday the challengers demonstrated that there is no substance to this recall.  They spent their time focusing on irrelevant deposition transcripts, their aspirations for serving the community lacked detail, and they did not even try to rebut the fact that former councilmen on the recall team sat idle before they were last voted off the Council.  Though the partial list above shows that much has been accomplished, there is more we must do.

I hope you will agree that Cave Creek needs to allow myself, Reg Monachino, Charles Spitzer, and Mike Durkin an opportunity to finish what we have started. And so, I ask for your vote and your continued support.  Together we will keep Cave Creek moving forward.  For more information please visit my website www.adamtrenk.com or feel free to contact me via email or phone if you have other questions.

Sincerely,

Adam Trenk

Vice Mayor, Town of Cave Creek

602-402-3335