I
attended the Cave Creek Town Council meeting on
Aug. 20 and was greatly disappointed in a lot of
people.
Shame
on the town council which appears to spend money
as if there is a bottomless pocket.
At
this meeting, two agenda items puzzled me.
The
first was an item to pay for emergency road repairs
for flood‑damaged roads, most notably
Spur Cross and Schoolhouse roads, for a sum of $62,000.
The second item was for a permanent fix for these
roads, for a sum of $101,000. When the assistant
town engineer was asked the difference between the
two repairs, his response was, “I don’t know.” With
this uninformative response, the council, without
further questions, passed the item unanimously.
For shame that our town council spends our dollars
with such little thought.
Shame
on the town staff for not being prepared to answer
town council questions and for not insisting on
correctly repairing the roads the first time. You
would think they would realize that tearing up one
repair for another requires additional time, expense
and traffic interruptions.
Shame
on the town council for spending valuable time on
the discussion of small and meaningless topics.
Town council spent an inordinate amount of time
discussing and arguing over a 20‑by‑8‑foot
wide mailbox kiosk planned at the entrance of a
development in a location not easily visible.
In
a later discussion on an item concerning the water
tanks to be designed and installed in various parts
of the town, the council accepted that these water
tanks each would be at least 125 feet wide by at
least 16 feet high and placed less than 15 feet
from property lines. One location will have two
of these tanks, for a total width of over 250 feet
of concrete walls. The magnitude of these immense
structures and their impact on the immediate neighbors
was downplayed, even though their visual impact
far exceeded the 20‑by‑8‑foot
kiosk.
Shame
on the town council and Cave Creek Water Company
for allowing construction where the lot coverage,
structure size and design, wildlife corridors and
appearance don’t meet the existing
zoning for the lots in question. The planning and
zoning committee must first pass all construction
by the public to ensure they meet all city ordinances.
Does the town not have to follow their own zoning
ordinances?
Shame
on the local newspapers for not covering what’s
really important to Cave Creek. Town staff is in
talks with various developers who wish to build
houses on Continental Mountain. In order to do this,
they have to provide for a 100‑year water
supply. For this supply, they would like to tap
into the Cave Creek water system. Water is a precious,
expensive and scarce resource, and there is currently
not enough in the CAP allocation for current build‑out
of the town itself, let
alone providing water to additional new developments
outside of the town of Cave Creek. Town council
has abrogated to town staff the responsibility for
making these agreements. At no time was this decision
announced at any official meeting that had an agenda
and minutes, contrary to the Arizona Open Meeting
Laws. I expected the local newspapers would have
acted in the interests of the citizens by publicizing
this breach of the laws.
Shame
on the citizens of Cave Creek. At this meeting,
a sum of over $15.6 million was authorized to be
spent by the city of Cave Creek, with additional
moneys to the amount of $50 million being discussed
for future expenditures. As a comparison, the budget
for the entire Cave Creek general fund is $3.5 million.
During this time only three people stood to make
a public comment and there were less than half a
dozen other people in the audience. Do the people
of Cave Creek not care where and how their tax dollars
are being spent, and upon what? Do they not care
that town council has applied for a total of over
$65 million from WIFA even though the public has
only voted to authorize $50 million, has over‑committed
the yearly tax revenue for many years in the future
and has expended the general fund for debt service
of this WIFA loan for many years into the future?
Do they care that town council appears to be spending
Cave Creek into the poor house?
And
shame on me for taking this long to speak out.
I hope my fellow Creekers will also wake up to how
our hard‑earned money is being spent.
Charles
Spitzer
Cave
Creek
