A Sonoran Truth Editorial, September 1, 2015
David Prinzhorn’s accomplishments can be read here: Arts Issue 20 FINAL
David had to go because he knew too much. He knew of all the screw ups to the water system under the Usama/ Sorchych / Francia Junta. Prinzhorn knew why the Sorchych Slate had to win the recall. The State Environmental folks haven’t addressed the illegal dumping confession the town had to make regarding high concentrations of ferric chloride that ended up in the wash behind Rancho Manana – and pumped all over Rancho Manana fairways. The town engineer discovered it and put a stop to it in February. That is the water stoppage that Sorchych turned into TOWN SHUTTING WATER OFF TO RANCHO MANANA. Given that Sorchych made an issue of it, was he trying to hide the fact that he knew all along that Usama was dumping toxic wastes all over Rancho Manana for years? Was he trying to get the town to back off and not disclose this fact? What did he know and when did he know it? Rumor from a plant employee is, Sorchych had a mole in the waste plant who was responsible for the problem and trying to tell the engineering staff how to run the plant. Mariscal Weeks / Dickinson Wright was so worried about the potential fines for this infraction that they withheld notification of ADEQ until they could get testing done to demonstrate how little damage was done. Ferric chloride is pretty mundane but its still listed as “toxic waste.” Just the dumping of water into that wash was illegal as hell. The fines could have been $131 million. That’s game over for Cave Creek.
What If???? Our mayor and vice mayor stated at one of the Thursday morning Mayor’s meeting that buying the water companies was not an option. “We had to do it to get a seat at the table should water become a problem.” Control over access to water was seen as the single most important issue facing development in our town.
But, is that true? Water is a critical resource. Perhaps the most critical for desert dwellers. But did our rush to “get a seat at the table” actually do us more harm than good? Clearly Cave Creek’s contract with Rancho Manana was a financial drain on the Town IF the water company was owned by a third party. Rancho gets water be it effluent or pumped out of the ground and if pumped from the ground or from CAP, the Town foots the bill.
To solve this financial debacle, Usama bought two water companies, and installed huge waste treatment plants that cost our town ~$65 million in WIFA loans. That was only the “purchase price.” After buying this albatross, there were repair and improvement costs, not to mention the financing costs.
Every year, Cave Creek has to pay approximately $4.8 million in debt service to the State of Arizona. Since the waste treatment facility was built for development that never occurred, it runs at a huge loss. In the ten years since the plant, purported by the Sonoran news article as a “State of The Art” waste treatment facility, came on line, the town has had to use general funds to subsidize its operation. $12 million dollars to date! Add that to the $65 million and we are ~$77 million dollars in debt as a town all due to the power tripping of Francia, Sorchych and Usama- The Three Stooges of Cave Creek.
Now, add in the required ongoing upgrades and routine operating costs along with maintenance and support to the infrastructure of the water companies, Cave Creek Water Company (CCWC) and Desert Foothills Water Company (DFWC) and the true cost of the stupidity of The Three Stooges start becomes blatantly apparent.
Last year, the DFWC absorbed approximately $300,000 in maintenance and upgrade costs. And, that seems to be pretty much what the town will pay every year for the next decade, or more, to get that company into a reliable and efficient water service to its customers. That’s another $3 million.
CCWC piping infrastructure is actually in worse shape and is a constantly breaking because the lines were never buried with the proper soft sand “shading” in the trenches. As water main breaks occur more frequently, these service mains will have to be replaced.
Much of the water service to the businesses in downtown is old galvanized pipe, which is undersized and corroded. Lets just pick a conservative number that fixes some of these major problems, say $20 million. That puts the infrastructure outlay for Francia’s folly of “future growth, and a “seat at the table,” at $100 million. Experience tell us that this number will likely climb higher.
Spread this $100,000,000 cost of “pro-development infrastructure” over ~4000 residents of Cave Creek and it comes to a staggering $250,000 per resident. Put another way, that’s a cost per resident of over $1000 a month over 20 years! No wonder Cave Creek has the highest sales tax in the state!
This debt load absolutely hammered the town’s ability to do even the basic town services like maintaining roads or improving local parks or landscaping downtown. Nearly one out of every three dollars in our budget goes to service the costs of our water and sewer debt. This is why we say that the Sorchych Stooges killed Cave Creek.
Steve LaMar, Vice Mayor admitted that, in 2009, after the market crash, the town council was seriously afraid Cave Creek might get annexed by Phoenix because our town was behind the financial ball. How can more debt prevent help us in any way? The Stooges who supported the water and sewer buys want to start a property tax so they can get more loans to buy open space all-the-while encouraging higher density in our established neighborhoods. Is this why you moved to Cave Creek?
But what if we never bought the water companies? Some entity would own the water companies, just as was the case before the town purchased them. That company receives its water from the CAP allotments. That would not change. Water rates are tightly controlled by the state regulatory agencies and increases have to be approved by those agencies.
In 2009, after Usama and Francia bought the water company, water rates doubled. Average users saw their water rates head north of $400 per month. Average water bill in the Phoenix area are under $50 per month. One of the big proponents of the water company buy was P.K. Development, the development company that founded Rancho Manana. Their flyer promoting the purchase of the water company touted lower rates after the buy and lower capital improvement costs.
Never mind the truth or logic. This is about power, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Sorchych and his cronies could care less how bad they screw the citizens of Cave Creek or Prinzhorn to keep him quiet. Dumber than a box of bricks Bentley makes a lame accusation against David for sexual harassment with no one coming forward to back up the allegation. Of course Vince the wimp Francia plays his part as does the Town’s BS attorney. For the future, yes the future of Cave Creek.