CAREFREE TRUTH

 

Letter from Reader - Our View - John Traynor, The Groszkrugers

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1/20/10   Our View – Mr. John Traynor   My wife and I have faithfully attended every Carefree town council regular and special meeting since June of 2009.  Our observations of the council members, the conduct of the meetings, and the mayor’s council meeting management expertise leave us completely dumbfounded as to what this recall of Mayor Schwan is all about.  Equally mysterious is the apparent vendetta being waged by the local weekly newspaper.  There is, more often than not, little resemblance between articles/editorials in the Sonoran News that describe the events at specific town council meetings, versus what has actually occurred at the council meeting.   Both of us are admirers of Mayor Schwan, though we have never met him.  Our appreciation of the mayor’s knowledge and abilities are based on observing the mayor’s behavior, sensible viewpoints on town concerns, and leadership at the town council meetings.  We are also quite familiar with the mayor’s opponent in the recall election, Mr. John Traynor.  Mr. Traynor often speaks at the council meetings, often approaching the lectern at the council meeting when the public is invited to speak.   While we admire and appreciate Mr. Traynor’s interest and concerns for the town’s affairs, we unfortunately have yet to hear any original or constructive suggestion from him regarding management of the town’s affairs.  Indeed, we cannot recall hearing any ideas or suggestions whatsoever from Mr. Traynor, let alone an original or a constructive idea.   Mr. Traynor’s contributions to the council meetings typically take the form of negative criticism or excoriation of Mayor Schwan, or of one of the council members who are apparent supporters of the mayor.  If not a direct disparagement of the mayor, then Mr. Traynor will form his comments as rather non-sequitur questions clearly designed to confront the mayor over issues that are seldom elucidated in any detail and often appear designed to be simply combative and/or to convey a sort of inflammatory suggestion of some mysterious misdeed on the part of the mayor or council to the listeners.   Mr. Traynor’s frequent arrivals at the lectern to only criticize and not suggest leaves us to wonder if his only reason to stand and speak might be to draw attention to himself, as if he is in a mode of a perpetual political campaign.  It is suspected that he really has little interest in the possible improvement of town fiduciary or business management matters, but rather embraces a completely self-serving agenda of elevating his face and his name to a high level of public recognition.  Even the local newspaper weekly that supports Mr. Traynor’s candidacy in the mayoral recall election is only able to describe his viewpoints as those of a “local activist,” but always without any specificity.   Mr. Traynor is thus a complete mystery to the great majority of Carefree Town voters.  His apparent singular ability to always and only criticize leaves us without any notion of what, if any, alternatives he might embrace, relative to the subject, or person, he is typically denigrating when he speaks at the council meetings.  He leaves us to wonder if he has any cogent thoughts, ideas, or constructive suggestions at all.  We really know nothing about what he would do in almost any situation or regarding any initiatives, if given an opportunity to serve as a Carefree Town Council member.  In short, he is a candidate without portfolio and one who should be viewed with a high degree of skepticism.   Mr. Traynor might be the favorite son of the local weekly newspaper and its editor, but after attending every Town Council meeting, our conclusion is that he is clearly someone devoid of answers or resolution suggestions for the problems he suggestively manufactures.  Further, it is evident that his knowledge of municipality management is nowhere near the level of that of Mayor Schwan and several of the other council members, and that the dearth of Mr. Traynor’s original ideas or initiative suggestions is an unmistakable warning that he has no business in representing Carefree as a town council member.   Carefree would be making a quite large mistake to replace David Schwan with someone who is completely unimaginative and sans any type of experiential or constructive portfolio.   Fred and Barbara Groszkruger CarefreeLetters_from_readers.html