Many of us feel this action was taken seven weeks too late as it was on the night of Sept. 23 that Ms. Abbott joined with Loomis, Carter & Kunisch to terminate David Andrews as our Town Manager.
Paula's action leaves the town in somewhat of a quandary. Someone will need to be appointed to fill her remaining 7 months, and as things are now, a 3-3 vote on most, if not all potential candidates seems inevitable. We'll see how that plays out.
As for Paula, she was first elected in 2002 and reelected in 2006. For most of her tenure, she was a lone voice of the people of Oro Valley. Sure, she had her detractors all along the way, but having helped get her elected twice, Paula always had my respect for voting her conscience and usually voting for the best interests of the people.
Did Paula and I agree on every issue? Of course not. I believed some of her votes were wrong, but in a seven year span, would any two people agree on every issue every time? Obviously not.
I would also say this to Paula's detractors: How many of us could have lasted for that long a time, especially when dealing with other Council Members that treated you with such disdain? Paula dealt with it, although it was never easy.
It wasn't until Paula saw fit to take the action against David, that was NOT in the best interests of the vast majority of us, that I too became one of her detractors.
Hopefully, now that she is no longer on the Council, Paula will tell us as how and why she joined the other three in terminating David. Some of us already know the answer, but Paula should "come clean."
Closing on a positive note, I'd like to thank Paula for her seven plus years of service to the community, and wish her our best now that she is once again only a citizen of our community.
