Carefree Truth

                                    Issue #461, February 12, 2016

 

 

 

Vice Mayor John Crane said that when Mayor David Schwan resigned in 2015 due to health issues and the Town had to go through the process of identifying a new Mayor, they realized some sections of the CarefreeTown Code were confusing, incomplete, and in need of improvement.  Carefree is a Statutory town, meaning it must comply with Arizona State Statutes.  Some Statutes had changed since the Town Code was last updated and Carefree was out of sync with those.  Two local Initiatives were passed in 2011 and those needed to be in the Code verbatim.  Clarification of how Town business is to be done needed codification with descriptions which were lacking.  The Vice Mayor believes that local government is the government that really works, so it is incumbent upon the Council to make sure it works.  Most citizens never deal with government beyond the local level.

 

 

 

A committee was formed that included Mayor Les Peterson, Vice Mayor John Crane, Town Administrator Gary Neiss, Town Clerk Kandace French, former Mayor Wayne Fulcher, former Vice Mayor Lloyd Meyer, and Councilman Bob Gearhart.  The Committee identified Chapters 2 (Mayor and Council), 3 (Administration/Staff), and 4 (Municipal Court) as the ones having the greatest impact.  The Internet was used to research the Codes of other Arizona cities and towns, and the best practices found in those were incorporated into the proposed amendments.  This was the first reading.  The second reading will take place at the March 1st Council meeting.  Vice Mayor Crane said that between the February and March meetings, the amendments could be massaged and fleshed out with any additional improvements and ideas.

 

 

 

Mayor Peterson added that Tom Rawles was also on the Committee and participated early on in the process.  Because it was difficult to coordinate the schedules of all the Committee members, the final draft was recently completed by the Mayor, Vice Mayor, Mr. Neiss, and Mrs. French, then the draft was sent to Mr. Fulcher, Mr. Meyer, and Mr. Rawles.  Written responses had been received from Mr. Fulcher and Mr. Meyer.  Some of the points were still being discussed with Town Attorney Mike Wright and with Attorney Bill Sims as late as the Friday before the February Council meeting the following Tuesday.

 

 

 

The Mayor asked Mike Wright to talk about quorums.  Mr. Wright said that Arizona law defines "Quorum".  There are 7 members of the Carefree Council.  A quorum consists of 4.  With 4 members present, the Council can legally do business.

What if 5 members are present?  Logic would suggest that 3 of 5 votes would be sufficient to approve an item, but this is incorrect.  At least 4 positive votes are always required, no matter how many Council members are present.  This needed clarification in the Town Code.

 

 

 

Mayor Peterson explained that Carefree must comply with State law and the Town Code must be understandable.  The objective of the Town government is to do what is best for the residents of Carefree.  For instance, two citizen Initiatives passed in 2011, one of which was term limits.  State Statutes do not include term limits, so it must be clear in the Town Code.  The proposed amendments are available for viewing in their entirety on the Town of Carefree website at www.carefree.org.  

 

https://vimeo.com/154426405   

 

 

 

Lyn Hitchon

 

 

 

Prepared by Carefree Truth

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