CAVE
CREEK – It was a small turnout, but enough to approve
Home Rule in Cave Creek.
Prop
400 was approved by a vote of 502 to 133, according to
the unofficial results on the Web site of the Maricopa
County Recorder’s Office. The vote renewed Cave Creek’s
right to set its own budget via the local alternative
option that permits the town to spend more than the Arizona
Constitution formula would normally allow.
Home
Rule was originally approved by Cave Creek voters in 1999
but must be renewed every four years.
There
are 3,007 registered voters in Cave Creek, according to
the county recorder’s office, meaning less than 25 percent
of the town’s voters turned out for the election.
Cave
Creek Mayor Vincent Francia said Wednesday he was pleased
by the outcome.
“It’s
wonderful,” he said.
“It
shows two things. The community supports the council and
the direction it has been going in the past few years,
and it shows trust in the council to make decisions about
the financial well‑being for the future of the town.”
Shea
Stanfield, who heads the political action committee Creekers
for Fiscal Responsibility which opposed the ballot measure,
said she wasn’t surprised by the vote but pointed out
the low voter turnout in no way gives the town council
a mandate.
“This
is the democratic process,” Stanfield.said “You don’t
have to be informed to vote. Unfortunately, in the next
four years, we’re going to look like a very different
place. You can’t be running up the debt in a slowing economy.”
Stanfield,
a former member of Cave Creek Town Council, has stated
she objects to how the
current council has conducted its business and that voting
down Home Rule would give residents another way of controlling
the budget.
George
Ross, chairman of Preserve Cave Creek, a PAC formed to
promote Home Rule, was out of town and unavailable for
comment.
