November 15, 2009

 

Carefree residents…attend your city government meetings and judge for yourselves.

 

Although my wife and I have been full-time residents of Carefree since 1999, it was only since July of this year that we began attending the Carefree Town Council meetings.  Since then, we have attended every regular and special town council meeting that was scheduled.

 

What sparked a desire in us to begin attending the Carefree Town Council meetings was the launching of a mayoral recall effort before the occurrence of the second regular town council meeting over which the new mayor, David Schwan, would preside.  Also of concern were the highly critical and derogatory news articles, editorial opinions, and reader comments that were becoming pervasive in the Sonoran News weekly newspaper, and regarding the newly elected mayor.

 

There was also a periodically published email newsletter titled, Carefree Matters.  One of the longer tenured council members writes this newsletter and he typically publishes it following each regular and special town council meeting.  Though we often thought the councilman’s newsletter tended to be rather self-serving, in that it was typically skewed toward advancing the prominence and relevance of its author, the bulletin was often constructive in providing information regarding Carefree town affairs…or so we thought before we began attending the council meetings.  And then, in addition to the self-promoting tenor, there clearly began to be a recurring undertone of bias in the Carefree Matters bulletin that was directed toward some council member colleagues of the newsletter author, and especially toward the new mayor.

 

David Schwan was elected to the town council on May 5, 2009.  About one-month later, on June 2, 2009, he was voted by his fellow council members to the office of mayor.  Yet, in less than the passing of a few days, and before the next regular Town Council meeting in July, the Sonoran News and the Carefree Matters newsletter had developed a quite hostile and highly critical viewpoint toward the new mayor.

 

How could this be when the new mayor had yet to officiate at his second town council meeting?  Certainly there wasn’t near sufficient time to evaluate Mayor Schwan’s behavior in his capacity as the highest ranking town official and chairman of the town council meetings.  What was going on?  Was Mayor Schwan such an incompetent and imbecilic bumbler that he deserved the unexpected, terse censure from the Sonoran News and the oblique bias displayed in the Carefree Matters newsletter?

 

Had my wife and I been living in a sort of protective bubble that prevented us from realizing the impact and affects to our town of questionable actions by our Carefree Town officials?  Our concern was mounting because we had voted for several of the now seated council members.  So we decided to begin attending the regular and special Carefree Town Council assemblies…and we’ve been to every regular meeting after the June 2nd council meeting that elected David Schwan as mayor.

 

After attending a couple of the town council meetings, to say that both of us experienced an eye-opening epiphany would be a quite enormous understatement.  Clearly, the most knowledgeably conspicuous, most competent, and most professional member of the town council is the mayor, David Schwan!  Any indication of ineptitude, ineffectual behavior or decisions/recommendations contrary to the welfare of the town just isn’t in evidence.  These were our initial impressions of Mayor Schwan after the first two council meetings, and attendance at subsequent regular and special council assemblies have only enhanced our appreciation and admiration of Mayor Schwan’s mayoral talents.

 

As a balance to the immature, often retributive and unintelligible behavior of a couple of the council members is the always patient, disciplined, and steady hand of Mayor Schwan’s governance of the council assembly protocols and business.  It is truly remarkable to observe Mayor Schwan’s self-control, his grace, his elegant governance, and his tolerant, soothing demeanor, even as he is accused of being a liar by a councilmember colleague.  (About what subject he’s a liar we never learn, because his accuser’s accusations are typically offered as non-sequitur comments, irrelevant to the current topic under discussion and not worthy of any follow-up.)

 

The recurring, obviously inveterate, unprofessional and antagonistic behavior of a few of the councilmen has been “called-out” by various Carefree residents at the “Call to the Public” portion of the meeting agenda.  These rightfully concerned citizens have requested that the council stop the infantile, rancorous conduct…behavior that is unbecoming and not representative of the class that the Town of Carefree connotes.  Unfortunately, these requests from the Carefree residents fall on the completely deaf ears of a couple of the members of the council, the most egregious offender being the author of the Carefree Matters newsletter.  These council members continue to launch their petulant, petty, and unfounded remarks/comments at Mayor Schwan, and occasionally lob mini-bomb barbs at the three, more professionally behaved, council members who appear to support the Mayor.

 

We would hope that the council members acquire the maturity to take the advice of the  citizens who have spoken at council meetings decrying the rancor and hostility that exists among, or between, some of the town councilpersons.  We will continue to attend the Carefree Town Council assemblies and would encourage every resident who has an opportunity to do the same.  Watching Mayor David Schwan’s tactfulness and skill in governing the council meetings as the councilpersons go about managing the affairs of the town is both very impressive and gratifying.

 

Our observations of the council members, the conduct of the meetings, and the mayor’s council management expertise leave us completely dumbfounded as to what this recall of Mayor David Schwan is all about.  The mayor often goes out of his way to educate and/or update the residents who attend the council meetings, relative to the topics being discussed, especially when another council member has initiated discussion about a subject, but with no preamble or foundation laid to help the public get up to speed on the issue.

 

Also, Mayor Schwan is clearly the most competent council member when it comes to summarizing the salient details of issues under discussion by the council members.  He is extremely capable of putting the subject matter under discussion at the time into proper perspective.  He is a thoughtful and wise leader, a person deserving of the office, and a mayor for whom the residents of Carefree should be thankful.  Why there is an attempt to recall this talented individual is a mind boggling mystery.  The reasons certainly are not about competence or any failure whatsoever of the mayor to look out for the best interests of Carefree.

 

There is often little resemblance between articles/editorials in the Sonoran News that describe the events at specific town council meetings versus what actually occurred at the council meeting.  True, a Sonoran News reporter is a faithful attendee at every council meeting, but one wonders if her viewpoints of meeting subject matter weren’t formed well before the meeting even started.  Also, the reporting is often so divergent from actual events that it suggests the entire Sonoran News story was already written and “in the can” well ahead of the meeting occurrence.  Since pre-written stories are a distinct possibility, why does the newspaper’s reporter even bother to show-up for the council meetings, except to provide the appearance of a veneer of credibility?

 

In searching for a reason that would explain the recall of Mayor Schwan, we can only surmise that, when one includes consideration of the role being assumed by the Sonoran News in the attempt to recall the mayor, that a rather open conspiracy is being played-out that includes the publisher and the primary reporter of the Sonoran News, and the councilman who publishes the periodic Carefree Matters newsletter.

 

Finally, we would caution the residents of the Town of Carefree to not take newspaper editorials, newspaper articles, opinions offered in self-serving newsletters, or contrived and embellished remarks made by a certain recall signature gatherer as the final word on town business matters, or on the capability/fitness of David Schwan as Mayor of Carefree. 

 

Come to the council meetings and see for yourselves.  Form your own judgment and opinion regarding this recall.  Come and experience the epiphany shared by my wife and me in knowing that the Town of Carefree is in skilled and experienced hands under the guidance of our mayor, David Schwan.

 

Fred and Barbara Groszkruger

Carefree