"Friends Of The Library" Hosting A Candidate Forum Jan 16

The three mayoral candidates and the seven council candidates have been invited to attend the first Candidate's Forum at the Oro Valley Library this Saturday, January 16 from 10:00 AM to noon.

The public is invited to attend. This will be our first opportunity to hear the candidates enunciate their positions on some of the important issues.

We were saddened to learn that our friend Dr. Don Emmons, a candidate we support for Council, will not be able to attend. Don's brother was rammed by a drunken driver earlier this week on his way to work. Don & his wife Carolyn will be visiting his brother in the hospital out of state.

We hope the serious injuries he incurred are not life threatening.

Don wanted all the citizens to know he apologizes for not being able to attend this forum.

Matthew Rabb---Might He Be A Viable Candidate For Oro Valley Council?

The Explorer has published some of Matt Rabb's thoughts as to why he is running for Oro Valley Council. Might young Matt be a more viable choice than most of the other candidates seeking the 3 open seats?

Here's The Explorer article

http://www.explorernews.com/articles/2010/01/13/news/doc4b4d03ef7f262721400240.txt

No Surprise--- Oracle Crossing Owners Sue Oro Valley Over Subsidy Funds

As reported in The Explorer, the owners of the Oracle Crossing Shopping Center have sued Oro Valley as a result of the town holding sales tax "kick-back" money in an escrow account pending the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling on the Turken vs. Gordon lawsuit brought on by The Goldwater Institute.

Hopefully, after hearing the case on Sept 30, 2009, the Court will rule soon on this critical issue. We can only hope the 5 Justices will uphold the Az Constitution which forbids governments from offering special concessions that favor one business while not providing discernible benefits to the community.


Here's The Explorer article.
http://www.explorernews.com/articles/2010/01/13/news/doc4b4d019b7728c305454741.txt

As We Previously Reported, Real Estate Sign Fees Remain

Here is The Explorer article on the Sign fees for Real Estate "Open House."
Interesting to note that Mayor Loomis,KC Carter & Real Estate agent Al Kunisch voted "no" on a fee that was imposed in 2003, but NOT collected until 2008.

Once again, Loomis & Carter, both of whom are seeking reelection, voted for a Special Interest Group, rather than the vast majority of citizens of Oro Valley.


Council says 'no' to sign code change
Fees for real estate signs to remain in place

By Patrick McNamara, The Explorer
Published:
January-13-2010
The Oro Valley Town Council has voted to retain current fees charged to real estate firms for open house signs, despite pleas for relief at the Jan. 6 council meeting.

"We're hampering the sale of these houses," said Councilman Al Kunisch, who supported a change. K.C. Carter and Mayor Paul Loomis joined him in voting against the current fee structure. Council members Bill Garner, Barry Gillaspie, Salette Latas and Pat Spoerl voted to keep the structure in place.

Currently, the town charges each real estate broker a $1,000 annual fee to put open house signs in the public right-of-way, areas such as street corners and medians. Town estimates say the cost of enforcing the rules is about $31,000 per year.

The council considered various options for change based on a sliding scale depending on the number of agents working under each broker. Numerous real estate agents were at the meeting, asking the council to adopt fee changes that would ease the burden on smaller offices. But the council declined, noting problems the change would create in tracking how many agents work for each brokerage.

"I think it's a perfectly fair and perfectly reasonable cost of doing business," Latas said. Latas also noted other jurisdictions in the region do not allow such signs to be placed in public rights-of-way. Town staffers noted the levels of enforcement in other jurisdictions are minimal.

Garner agreed. In a later interview, he noted the difficulty of using sliding scales.

"I couldn't find anything that we collect that's on a sliding scale," Garner said.

He also noted that in 2003, a previous council voted to change the fees from $20 per year to the current levels. The problem has been that the town stopped collecting any fees after the changes were made.

"It was our error," he said.

The fee issue could be revisited later in the year, when the council undertakes a comprehensive review of the entire sign code.

Oro Valley Council Approves Management Studies

As reported in The Explorer, this past Wed. the council approved by a 5-2 vote to proceed with getting bids for a Management Study of the Police Department & Parks & Rec Department.

Following his approx. 10 month self imposed rule of not voting for anything of importance that Council Members Garner & Latas support, KC Carter voted "no" along with Kunisch. Too bad these two, for their own purposes, refuse to do what's best for the town.

Here's what The Explorer says.


Management study gets go ahead


The council also approved a plan to dip into cash reserves to pay for a pair of management studies focusing on the police and parks and recreation departments.

Kunisch and Carter opposed the plan. Mayor Loomis and council members Garner, Gillaspie, Latas and Spoerl voted for moving ahead with the management studies.

Estimates for the cost of the studies vary from $50,000 to $80,000 for the police, and $40,000 to $75,000 for parks and recreation.

Council policy for several years has been to conduct a study of each town department. To date, four town departments have been evaluated, including legal, building safety, library and public works.

Carter noted what he saw as problems with a study done on the town's legal department, a study that he requested.

"I really got burned on that legal decision," Carter said. He also described the final analysis as "poorly written."

With the council decision to move forward on the studies, a request for proposals from qualified firms should be ready by March. The money to pay for the studies would come out of this year's budget.