Lyn--thank you for all your work on this!! It has been so informative.

Jan Dooley

 

 

 

 

Lyn - Good ones by Herbie and enjoy reading this type of editorial opinion offered in CFT by various contributors. That stated, below are my editorial opinions that might be considered as companion discussion to Herbie's commentary:

 

Mayor Schwan - Also, clearly the most knowledgeable member of the council relative to how small town economics and accounting practices work, and about the State's council meeting requirements. He is by far the most rational member of the council, in terms of sifting through the useless detritus of issues and arguments and almost always ending-up with decisions/recommendations that move the proverbial "peanut" of Town progress forward.

Mike Farrar - "He is a good speaker," as long as he is talking in his own self-interest. His demeanor is one of, first and foremost, promoting himself as a sort of Carefree savior, but seldom offers actionable suggestions that would result in some tangible benefit to the Carefree residents or to the small businesses in town. Very wordy, as though a monotonous flow of rhetoric will substitute for discrete, purposeful and constructive ideas to assist the town's economic development and/or resident amenities.

Melissa Price - Yes, a "hard worker," but what results has she obtained? One can work their bloody tails-off but accomplish nothing in support of the Town's business enhancement and resident contentment agenda. "Hard work" is not a sign of accomplishment - it is a term used by those needing to describe another's efforts when there really is not much to identify in terms of the positive outcomes of the person's efforts. Was not the development of the new business directional signs along the Town's main thoroughfare mostly an accomplishment by a team headed by Melissa?

Glenn Miller - Sorry Herbie, but you need to stop with the meaningless and generic description of "works hard." One should be able to point to a plethora of accomplishments (read: "results" or "outcomes") by Glenn in the areas of town infrastructure improvement, the fire station construction, input and recommendations for various town infrastructure upgrades, and helpful input/suggestions regarding examination of contractor bids for work paid-for out of the Town's revenue. Glenn is more than just "Glenn" and is the type of contributor that every small town would love to possess.

Krahe and Crane - Too little is known about their viewpoints and thus in what directions each would want to lead the town.

Les Peterson - His marketing experience and skills would possibly benefit Carefree to a large and wide-reaching extent. That assumption stated, it is just that . . . an assumption. Because Mr. Peterson sounds like he would be a marvelous and much needed addition to a Carefree Council that is pretty much bereft of representatives who are knowledgeable in the marketing of small municipalities and town initiatives, but Mr. Peterson has yet to offer examples of specific results, or accomplishments, that were achieved from business career marketing efforts under his leadership. There is no doubt that the current efforts to wisely and beneficially market Carefree and to attract new storefronts to its fellowship of businesses are vague, meager and are absent the reporting of measurable, tangible results. The marketing company faithfully reports on what it is doing, but really offers no philosophical rationale behind its plans nor any definitive, objective results of the activities it initiates. Perhaps this is what one should expect based on the amount of money allocated by the Town to the marketing company, but maybe not. It would be an important enhancement to the council membership to have a widely experienced marketing veteran among the membership.

Marty Saltzman - Yes, a councilperson who often offers amusing, light-hearted commentary to discussions. He is a refreshing addition to the Carefree Town Council. And his elucidations are typically in the interests of the town agendas/objectives, as opposed to attempts at self-promotion or empty rhetoric. But we need to see more explicit ideas/suggestions from Mr. Saltzman, not just (often) humorous exposition or anecdotal references to ideas/issues authored by others on the Council. Mr. Saltzman presents himself as a quick-thinker (and quick-witted) council member who is quite intelligent, with the ability to sift through the collateral discussions that divert the focus of the council members from the primary topic at hand. But Mr. Saltzman seldom makes a specific suggestion or recommendation relative to the explicit matter being debated. Would like to see a more dogmatic presentation on the various subject matters that are presented to the council from Mr. Saltzman, because he clearly has the intellect to develop good, workable suggestions/alternatives to any number of council concerns.

 

Fred

(Lyn's note: You are quite correct that is it good to give examples, as you have done.  Vice Mayor Price did head up the sign committee, and she did much of the grunt work.  Councilman Miller's input and physical labor saves the Town a BIG bag of money, and has for years.  Herbert was trying to keep it short, but your input fleshes out what he started.  Thanks!)  

 

 

 

Dear Doctor Hitchon: I am certain that your patients respect your work; and you have proved to be an excellent photographer, too. BUT, as a political pundit you have crossed a line better reserved for others. Your remarks (attack?) about Mike Farrar badly lacked creditability and in fact was not even close to the "Carefree Truth". Here are the real facts:

1) On 7/10/12 when the Council approved the 2012/13 Budget Mike was absent. There was no way for him to "join Jim Van Allen in voting on the Christmas Parade Budget" In fact, JVA did not, at that time, vote NO on the budget...instead I made the motion to accept the Budget. and I did not need any help arguing with the Mayor and Miller.

 

(Lyn's note: Councilman Farrar agreed with you to cut the amount budgeted at the April 24, 2012 budget workshop.  That cut was defeated 5-2 after Mayor Schwan called for a show of hands asking for those who wanted your proposed cut.  Councilman Farrar's hand was raised immediately, even before yours.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uta7oKWBcS0.  Fortunately, all the video we record is archived, since memories can dim with time.  After receiving your email, we went back and viewed that section of the workshop, and the incident in question is covered in the above YouTube that Herbert did last night.

 

2) On 4/24/12 during the Council Budget Workshop, Van Allen had a couple of heated conversations about the Christmas Budget, i.e.:

A) Why was it over $76,000 when Jo only asked for about $ 65,000?

B) Why had they lumped the expected donations and the "maybe ones" together?

C) Where was the itemized request, as required by Town Code? (See the job description of the Treasurer)

D) Why did we need to spend over $ 20,000 more then the prior year? and three times more than the first year?

During those discussions most of the Council 'sat on their hands' and did not say a word.

E) The Mayor requested a show of hands to support his idea to give the Committee $ 20,000 of Town funds instead for the $ 12,000 budgeted the prior year. As I recall, I was the only one that did not raise their hand.

3) At no time does your UTube video show Mike Farrarr voting NO, or even discussing this issue. He and the rest of the team let me carry the ball by myself...which I was prepared to do as I had done the research.

 

(Lyn's note:  The issues you pose above are covered in the second YouTube that Herbert did last night.  You were shown to be incorrect about how much was budgeted the year before.  Mayor Schwan admitted that he had originally given you incorrect information, as he had been given mistaken information initially.  But when he double checked the actual numbers afterwards, he went back to you with the correction.  You were told several times that the initial information was incorrect, and the budget from the previous year was available to you to check firsthand, but you refused to amend your position to correlate with the facts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKjpEy9WypM)  

 

4) Why you would take it upon yourself to distort the FACTS and do a hatchet job on Mike is beyond me.

 

(Lyn's note: Your use of the term "hatchet job" seems a bit dramatic, relative to the opinion expressed.)

 

Further: You would have no way of knowing the vast amount of time and effort that Mike has put in on behalf of the Town. The list is too long for this email. I put in a lot of time while on the Council, but Mike far exceeded my efforts...and most of the Council, also. His work on the Business signs finally got us a product that most are happy with.

 

(Lyn's note: The sign proposed by Councilman Farrar was not the one chosen by either the Council or preferred by the members of the public who attended that workshop.  Councilman Miller and Vice Mayor Price were then instructed to implement the creation of the new signs designed by Howard Bertram, a Carefree business owner, as opposed to the sign presented by Mr. Farrar, made by the company which makes his business signs.  Mr. Bertram's signs are the ones currently placed in the medians.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEx_Wes8Iss.  This YouTube was published June 12, 2012, and was included in a Carefree Truth issue at the time.) 

 

His idea to place the word "Carefree" on the roundabouts was a stroke of genius.

 

(Lyn's note: Yes, Councilman Farrar's idea was quite good, and the letters are a wonderful improvement to the Town Center roundabout walls.  The implementation of that idea was enacted by others.)

 

His efforts to attract new businesses to Town was and is an ongoing effort, and now he is working on a new and outstanding effort that will be announced shortly.

 

(Lyn's note: Councilman Farrar is a member of the team who is working on attracting new businesses to Carefree, and we commend that team, including Mr. Farrar.)

 

Doctor, you did Mike a huge injustice. I consider your remarks to be in very bad taste and unethical to say the least. May I suggest you stick to your practice and photography, you added no value in politics.

Jim Van Allen a Carefree citizen who is voting for MIKE FARRAR

 

 

Herb & Lyn,

I would not normally take the time to respond to these type of irresponsible comments, but I feel I must given your disparaging remarks and untruth’s about my candidacy and tenor on the town council. I suggest you let my record and my voice speak for itself.

To be clear, I did not side with Jim Van Allen to cut the Christmas Festival Budget. Please see Council and Workshop Budget video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qgqOHV2ITM. Actually, I supported the Christmas Festival Budget and I have even volunteered for the Christmas Festival in the past. I, like many, sincerely appreciate all the good work from Jo Gemmill and her team, in organizing our Christmas event. Moreover, I even meet with the Arizona Tourism Department to receive additional promotional assistance for our Christmas Festival.

Furthermore, the Hitchon’s have no factual evidence that "there is little action behind my words." I have never even had a conversation with Herb or Lyn Hitchon regarding town policy decisions, or my views, and neither of them were ever in my presence during the many hours I have worked on town issues in committee or otherwise. I welcome Herb to cite one example of such. Again, I have spent numerous hours on our town projects and fact gathering regarding decisions of town policy; i.e. merchant sign re-design and lighted round-about signage, town-center and garden lighting, marketing, economic development, public work projects, and advocating to pay off town debt, improving our streets, and limiting unnecessary expenditure of scarce town resources, etc.. Currently, I am heading up the "Carefree Veterans’ Memorial" project.

It is disturbing to see that if a council member in Carefree does not "rubber-stamped" or agree with all of Mayor Shawn's views, or spending/policy decisions, they are attacked by the "Hitchon’s” and clearly edit their council video to limit and skew the truth, and not equally and fairly present opposing views. That was why I complained to the Hitchon's about "not getting enough "YouTube air time."

(Lyn's note: Councilman Farrar felt that his concerns over the placement of the light poles by the entrance to the Town were not sufficiently covered in Carefree Truth.  Councilman Miller set aside time the following Saturday morning to physically show Mr. Farrar where the poles would be placed.  Herbert and I took time from our Saturday morning to show up with the video camera to satisfy Mr. Farrar's  complaint, which we felt had some validity. 

This was not the only complaint lodged.  Mr Farrar sent an  accusatory email on another issue, stating that Vice Mayor Price's comments were included in full, while his were abbreviated.  In fact, about 80% of the Vice Mayor's comments were left out, as were many of Councilman Farrar's and those of other Council members, as the discussion was quite long, and many comments were repeated by multiple members.  The purpose of the YouTubes, and of Carefree Truth, is to allow those who don't attend the meetings to grasp the gist of what is discussed, not to replay the entire meeting. 

By the way, the Carefree Mayor's last name is Schwan, not Shawn.) 

In short, I am a proud conservative that feels small government always works best, and I challenge, and ask the difficult questions about how our town resources are spent and for who’s benefit. I can only imagine that my conservative views, are the reason I am unfairly attacked by the Hitchon’s. Carefree deserves better in permitting "all" voices to be heard.

(Lyn's note: I am at a loss to understand why Councilman Farrar "imagines" that Carefree Truth is opposed to small government and/or conservative views.  It is fortunate for Mr. Farrar that he has never generated the ire of the Sonoran News, or the "recall" group, the folks who are infamous for "unfair attacks".)  

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Farrar

Town Councilman

PS I hope you will print my response.

(Lyn's note: This, to our surprise, has become the proverbial tempest in a teapot.   Both Councilman Farrar's response and Resigned Councilman Van Allen's response on the brief observations put forth by my husband, who for years has faithfully attended Council meetings and workshops, and is an informed member of the voting public, have been now been printed and addressed.  We feel that the subject has been exhausted and are not interested in a prolonged continuation of said topic.  For the record, I have said all along that we have a good field of candidates, and this little manufactured melodrama is just a silly distraction.)