Political Battleground Part 9

QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA 9 MARCH 2011 -- The town's election may have resulted in the retention of the sitting council -- but the early balloting that brought about that amazing 'turn of events' is unlikely to go unchallenged.

The business people in Quartzsite are unhappy: in fact, it's affecting everything in Quartzsite from the utility rates and impact fees to the lack of property sales.

"With a strong Mayor at the helm," one businessman said, "the town will thrive -- even if it takes time to oust the poor councilmen currently in place. Those of us who want to invest in Quartzsite will just postpone our expansion plans until that begins to happen."

These comments echo those of Mayor Ed Foster, who has indicated that he has talked to many such business minded people.

"They are frustrated," Foster stated Tuesday. "These councilpeople seem proud to be 'controlled' by Taft -- and whoever is controlling her. 

The business community wants to see real leadership -- real accountability on the part of this council -- and it's just not happening.  The  men 'manning' those council seats seem to be 'just fine' with taking orders from a clearly unqualified, to date untrained woman who obtained that position of power via some dubious means -- and who continutes to reject all efforts by the League of Cities and Towns to see her become properly trained.

They know this.  Why can't they 'man up' and just do their jobs as council people? The entire business community talks about how poorly they're treated when they attempt to handle what should be very 'typical business transactions' at Town Hall.

"Why is this? Why can't Quartzsite just operate as other municipalities do? Why all the lies, the secrecy -- the abuses?"

Foster is not alone in his criticism. While the town managed to avoid even a single replacement of the current council, the unusual circumstances are, at best, disconcerting.

Foster intends to continue challenging the 'status quo' in Quartzsite, and working to expose the unusual workings of Quartzsite's municipal government.

Battleground 8

QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA 1 MARCH 2011 -- So when the GOLDWATER INSTITUTE wrote Quartzsite's Town Council concerning their erroneous ruling [LETTER HERE] in regard to the unconstitutional restriction of individuals running for office, it was surprising to see that the council voted to ignore the Goldwater Institute's request that they refrain from attempting to control who is allowed to run for office and repeal ordinance No. 09-15.

In an interesting turn of events, Councilman Jerry Lukkasson, a particularly outspoken critic of anyone that owed the town money, added his comments regarding the Goldwater request for reconsideration in a letter, staunchly defending his actions in voting for Ordinance 09-15.

But when the tax lien lists were publicly published in accordance with the laws concerning delinquent tax roles, two of Lukkasson's properties were on the list -- and a FOIA request made by the publishers of the Desert Free Press for Lukkasson's financial statements as required under the law when an individual declares their candidacy for office the documents showed that Lukkasson had not chosen to reveal these debts rendering his financial statement 'misleading.'

On February 25, Goldwater Institute's Attorney for Constitutional Litigation, Christina Kohn, again addressed this issue -- but this time to the Attorney General's office.

Battleground Part 7

QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA 1 MARCH 2011 -- The Town of Quartzsite has published notice that the town council will go into Executive Session Wednesday, March 2, 2011 to consider pursuing legal action against ex-Mayor C. Richard Oldham concerning the easement onto the property -- at the point where the far end of Main Street reaches Oldham's airstrip.

The Town of Quartzsite's financial position is so poor that even the consideration of launching a legal assault against Oldham has already  resulted in criticism over the expense of such an action. The 'Road that Goes Nowhere' is nothing more than an easement that runs straight into an impassable wash.

"On the basis of whatever legal rights the town might construe as theirs, they have launched one battle after another against me," Oldham stated Monday.

"I don't want a battle with the town -- but I will certainly defend whatever issues they insist upon pressing," he said.

"Free use of that airstrip is being offered to the military and whatever search and rescue operations need to use it -- that's why I publicized it as an emergency landing strip following the emergency landing on US 95 that could well have resulted in a loss of life," Oldham continued.

"I have no animosity toward the town and I cannot understand why they seem to insist on challenging their citizens -- one after another. It should not be this way -- it wasn't this way when I was Mayor, and the Mayor we have today has taken the same stance. Leave people alone -- let them do their business and be productive citizens within the community."

It is interesting to note that all of Quartzsite's councilmen have been recalled and the election is scheduled for March 8.

Will the airstrip survive?

There are political consequences to the pursuit of such an action as the town has chosen to pursue, especially since the airstrip has been on the property since before the Internet existed. Even Google's earliest records show the presence of that landing strip.

There is no other airstrip in Quartzsite -- nor even close by. Oldham charges nothing for use of the strip.

In recent history, Norman McGuinness facilitated the sale of additional property to Oldham on the eastern side of the airstrip specifically to facilitate the needs of fliers visiting the town and utilizing the strip.

As for the airstrip itself, such [pre-existing] entities are protected under the law [Proposition 207] and to make a claim to the property would -- at best -- require the town pay Oldham for it. The town has recently notified citizens that they are refusing to accept even donations of roads if they are not up to code due to the cost of bringing such roads up to code and then having the additional responsibility of maintaining them.

Why, then, would they want to battle Oldham for the unimproved, unpaved and unused road and -- in addition -- obtain a road that has the potential for added liability?

They have essentially accomplished little more than to invite embarrassing attention to an already publicly ailing council over Oldham's airstrip since they publicly voted to allow Oldham to declare the airstrip an emergency landing site following his public  appearance to request specifically that.

Also at issue is the fact that Oldham was charged criminally over minor issues at the Main Event property -- and those citations were signed by the Town's Building Inspector. DOCUMENTS HERE

Already, the Town issued two separate batches of citations [stipulated specifically as criminal] each citing various infractions. Two of those 'multiple infraction' citations have already been tossed by the presiding Wickenburg Magistrate Judge, called to Quartzsite specifically to hear the case against Oldham when Oldham did not waive his rights and allow the case to be heard by the local Magistrate or the Justice of Peace.

Battleground Part 6

PARKER, ARIZONA 3 FEBRUARY 2011 -- La Paz County is facing the most trying time in the history of the county as Jim Willett's $9.3 million judgment threatens the credibility of all concerned.

Beginning when the judgment was awarded, county officials have seemingly sought to sidestep the matter rather than deal with the fallout from what have been touted as questionable decisions on the part of the Board of Supervisors in place when the business deal with Willett deteriorated, leading into a court battle that ultimately resulted in the judgment following a jury trial.

Willett has openly worked to press the county officials into a settlement, even holding public meetings to inform the public of what the Board of Supervisors has been doing. At times, County Administrator Dan Field would appear to counter the information offered by Willett -- but even then no true effort to find a way to settle the issue seemed evident.

Local businessman Richard Oldham brought an offer from a group of landfill executives to offer to pay a reduced amount of money to the county [over $6 million] in exchange for the landfill located on Route 95 -- but the county officials refused to relinquish control of the landfill and did not respond to the effort made by the businessmen.-

Instead, the county hired attorneys to investi-gate the possibility of filing bankruptcy -- a measure criticized publicly for what appeared to be a clear effort to undermine the intent of the jury -- a jury which had taken issue with the way the Board of Supervisors had initially treated Willett.

INTERVIEWS

Political Battleground Part 5

QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA 22 NOVEMBER 2010 -- The problems plaguing Quartzsite do not appear to be abating anytime soon.

Critics now charge that the town is selectively harassing various business from the sidelines while battles rage, and the council of six are all under recall as people have signed petitions demanding their ousters.

Charges against town officials have been filed -- with the business people charging they have been attacked for certain political beliefs and activities. The Mayor currently in office has watched essentially without comment as the council has taken steps at every opportunity to disempower him.

Monies allocated to the persecution of various businessmen have been challenged and a new injunction is an effort to restrict the activities of the council until new councilmen can be elected in March.

Among the challenges the town faces are accusations that they are selectively prosecuting individual business people while ignoring others similarly situated -- a violation of federal law.

"When the battles finally settle in Quartzsite, it will fall to the people to elect those people that will serve as councilmen -- and even if there  are difficult times or mistakes in electing qualified leaders, those mistakes will be dealt with as they appear -- and on those rare occasions when someone is elected that fails to do a proper job, they  will be replaced," stated one businessman.

"What we need in Quartzsite is a council that respects the town's people and a willingness to do a capable job," he said. "Those people do exist. Other towns have faced similar challenges and been successful in handling them. Quartzsite is really no different."

Political Battleground Part 4

QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA 22 JUNE 2010 -- The election of Foster marks the first Mayor elected to the office by the citizenry since the May 2008 election of Quartzsite businessman Steve Bennett.

And exactly as Foster has been attacked, so, too, was Bennett -- suffering the same level of accusations, public harassment  and restriction of powers that Foster is now experiencing.

When Bennett was Mayor, it was Wesley Huntley that publicly demanded his resignation, and so determined were the efforts to humiliate Bennett, that the story of his resignation was turned in to the Arizona Republic even though the story didn't merit that level of  coverage.

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Political Battleground Part 3

QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA 30 MAY 2010 --

As often as Quartzsite citizens have indicated they would much prefer Quartzsite's council put aside their differences and attempt to work together for the good of the community, a packed house of angry constituents openly indicated they believed it may never happen -- particularly after Tuesday's session.

An angry crowd confronted the newly elected council when it became apparent that they were not going to back down from their already set decision -- to disempower Foster even before allowing him to take his seat as Mayor -- and citizens after citizen stood to openly condemn Acting Mayor Huntley's staunch refusal to relinquish his chair to Foster.

Citizens have also been extremely vocal concerning their frustration, circulating Recall petitions against those that participated in the ill-advised actions against Foster, and the entire incident has been seen as a catalyst toward dividing the community even further.

"There's no reason for these meetings to descend into absolute chaos," stated local activist Dean Taylor. "We elected a Mayor that we knew didn't have ulterior motives by which he would decide who spoke and who didn't, who was treated with respect and who wasn't.

"We want to get this town on the road to recovery. It's flat broke with money running everywhere and they're blocking a forensic audit to find out what's happened to all those unaccounted-for funds. It has garnered a terrible reputation on the state level, and it's embattled. People try to find out what's happening only to be stonewalled and then publicly slandered and ridiculed.

"Businesspeople are losing a fortune and while the economy is tanking, it's even worse in Quartzsite. They have chased off many, many investors and hounded to the point of ridiculousness those that were left.

"They've taken every nickel they can wring from the townspeople and still they won't stop. And all this while they spend huge amounts of money with no discussion or accountability whatsoever, hire people we don't need, hand out raises and bonus checks and move money around [and use funds] from sources that have been improperly -- read that illegally -- utilized.

"We believed the election of Foster was going to be a turning point. Here we had  specifically elected a Mayor to run the meetings that could do so competently and with a measure of professionalism we haven't seen in Quartzsite for some time!" Taylor continued.

"And there sat Huntley, refusing to relinquish his seat to the new Mayor, insisting instead on running the meeting himself, still yelling 'Sit down and shut up' from the bench while banging the gavel and ordering the police to throw people out of the meeting. And they wonder why we have no respect for them? It was chaos -- utter chaos."

"One concern that I believe needs to be considered is the true intent behind this withdrawal of Mayoral powers from Foster," he said.

"Are they anticipating Foster declaring an emergency and calling in outside officials when he determines how this town has been run and by whom?

Foster, a one time Director of the Citizen's Coalition was widely known as the 'popular candidate' during his campaign, with supporters dubbing him 'the People's Mayor,'  since he was selected specifically by and for the people whose voices were consistently silenced at Town Hall meetings.

An Illinois native and a Marine, Foster became an engineer and traveled the world exten-sively while working in that field. He is now the editor and publisher of 'The MINESHAFT," a widely read local publication.

The level of expertise he brings to the table is far beyond that required for holding a political position in a small town.

To question Foster's motives or abilities without a comprehensive review of the incident that Taft has indicated prompted her to sponsor the actions against Foster is premature and patently illegal.

"If the council wanted to take proper and equitable action," stated one attorney, "they would conduct an investigation -- a comprehensive investigation -- of the entire incident by an independent third party to determine why proper protocol as set forth by governmental mandates in 2002 have not been implemented nor applied."

"To do less is for the council to  take  a  position
 -- a side, if you will -- without meeting the proper criteria for having done so."

"And even then, these measures do not preclude Foster's rights and duties under his official title of Mayor: "The power to declare an emergency has traditionally resided in the Chief Executive Officer of a political subdivision whether that be the President, the Governor or the Mayor."

Further, the rules and regulations for emergency protocols and procedures are set by State Statute and the Town Council lacks the authority to alter Arizona State Law.

Those present have not only questioned the council's efforts to 'reign in' Foster in spite of public outcry, they also question the ramifications of yet another dilemma created by the move: If these changes were allowed to be implemented It would now require a consensus of a committee before the declaration of a public emergency could take place.

This entire issue stemmed from an incident during which there was not even one -- elected or otherwise -- official available for comment whom the public or press could utilize when a question was raised as required under the Emergency Response Act of 2002 [according to which Quartzsite is still not compliant 8 years after its implementation.]

EXCERPT FROM PAGE 14 of the EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS ACT:

Effective public and media communications is a key element of your Emergency Response Plan [or ERP]. You should designate in advance who the spokesperson will be during a major event. The spokesperson should be someone who is knowledgeable and credible, has good communication skills, and, if possible, is not a key person needed for implementing ERP response actions during the major event.

In communicating with the media, the lead spokesperson may be someone external to the CWS if another organization has taken over the role of lead agency or Incident Commander (e.g., a representative from the health depart-ment or the State Drinking Water Primacy Agency). You should consider having both field and office staff respectfully defer questions to the designated spokesperson.

You can plan now for public and media  notifi-cation needs by developing a communication plan or strategy for the spokesperson to follow. The communication plan or strategy should be a set of general guidelines for the spokesperson to follow in order to craft clear and concise messages for the public and to also deal with the media. The communication plan or strategy should be targeted to reach several audiences, such as your customers (both residential and business), local health professionals, and  others.

You can draft press releases and public water re-striction notices in advance. The key to remember is that your message should be clear, accurate, and easily understood by your audience.

[This is the end of the excerpt. Please click the link above to learn more.]

Quartzsite officials have historically refused to communicate with their constituents openly, with no emergency protocol answering service to call when contact with an official is required.

All of the numbers on the Town Hall site are for the Town Hall office only. There are no 'after hour' numbers available.

Should the citizens of an entire town now have to wait for a meeting to take place before an emergency can be declared? How much would this slow a response?

Public emergencies have historically consisted of everything from toxic fumes to bomb threats. How long of a response time would be too long to wait when public safety is at stake?

Adding to the frustration of the citizenry were concerns that several councilmen had obviously made a 'decision' before the meeting -- and that they had apparently agreed to 'stand together' against whatever opposition might come.

While the Sunshine Law clearly prohibits such activity, it's been a mainstay of Quartzsite politics in spite of ongoing efforts to educate councilmen concerning the consequences of ignoring this law.

"Who is making these ridiculous decisions?" Taylor asked at a separate meeting, "It just never seems to improve -- you have to wonder about whose advice they're taking -- and why!"

Several times, facing strong criticism and opposition from virtually all factions for refusing to relinquish his seat to the newly elected Mayor, exiting 'acting Mayor' Wes Huntley proclaimed, "I have to do it. This wasn't my choice, fella, this wasn't my choice."

Huntley's statements seem to beg the question: 

             "Whose choice, then, was it?"

Quartzsite has, in the past, made the national political scene, however. When three term Mayor Richard Oldham was recalled via the efforts of a political challenger, the challenger assumed the  Mayoral position and soon was charged with having paid an undercover officer to murder Oldham.

A lengthy trial ensued, during which the Mayor was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder with a second man pleading guilty to a lesser charge.

It was the first time in the history of the United States that an active Mayor had hired to kill an opponent already beaten in an election.


Could the citizen's charge that the Quartzsite Town Council made an error when they attempted to change the state's rules on who may run for office? If this document is correct, it would appear that that is an accurate assessment.

In spite of criticism from Town Council member Bill Moore, the Council voted to alter the rules and regulations pertinent to determining which candidates may run for office by preventing anyone that 'owes money to the town' from participating in an election.

However, since that event took place, the documentation provided by Ed Foster takes issue with the passage of that measure.


         


Quartzsite has been featured on the Internet for its chemtrails, particularly in peak season. July 25, the History Channel aired a piece on chemtrails taking the issue from the realm of Internet conspiracy theory' to reality and even news forums. But now that it's out in the open, what will be done about it?

There's little doubt that the spraying has serious consequences in people and animals...


The Citizen's Coalition has promised to work against allowing the position to be filled by the sitting council, citing dissatisfaction with the way the operation of the town is currently handled.

Ex-Mayor Steve Bennett  last year won the election by a wide margin as a write-in candidate - the first successful write-in candidacy in Quartzsite. Residents cited dissatisfaction with the current administration for Bennett's wide margin win, and the Mayor's position left open when he resigned  is a seat citizen's are requesting to fill by election instead of appointment, as reviewed by the Citizen's Coalition.

The Citizen's Coalition has promised to work against allowing the position to be filled by the sitting council, citing dissatisfaction with the way the operation of the town is currently handled.

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The Citizen's Coalition  website is now up and running, disseminating information throughout the community and developing a program that they hope will continue to enlighten, inform and bring about improvements in communications between community entities and program heads.

Meetings are held regularly in Taco Mio's western dining room the evening before every Town Council meeting. They begin at  6 PM, and the public is invited. Town Council meetings are the second and fourth Tuesday of every month.