The August Election: What's At Stake?

There are 3 candidate forums this month.  One, the Northwest Conservatives Forum is this Wednesday.  The 3 forums are listed under "Upcoming Events" in the right panel of this page.

We thought, it preparation for these forums, it would be good to identify the key issues.  So, we surveyed 10 Oro Valle-knowledgeable residents.  We asked: "What's at stake?" This is what they said.

---
"The most import outcome of the election will be if the Town will be governed by a citizen-centric or a special-interest council. If the citizens of Oro Valley want be included in all deliberations, Don Bristow and Pat Straney are the only choices. If the citizens want their interests to be considered secondary to special-interest groups or only for political reasons, they should consider the incumbents."
---
"At Stake is the overriding outcome of the 2015 General Plan. The 2015 General Plan will only be a document expressing the citizens' desires for the future of Oro Valley if Don and Pat are elected."
---
"Continued conflict with block voting by majority does not allow representation of the people. Our interests are not represented as (like the president) the 4 do exactly what they want to do without regard to residents: continued development of apartments/mixed use projects that bring additional costs to town in terms of police, schools, roads; imposition of more rules that reduce our private property rights; spending money/bonding for things like Naranja Park & Steam Pump that people are not interested in developing during this down economy, etc."Government by the Citizens. Fiscal responsibility....we are CONSTANTLY robbing our reserves instead of working within our means"
---
"I think that the majority 4 thinks the General Plan is simply a guide and will bend over backwards to satisfy developers."
---
"Civil behavior in government meetings, behavior and correspondence."
---
"The upcoming Primary Election this August 26 offers the Town of Oro Valley citizens an important decision and choice! We can choose to remain mired in descent and discord – aptly characterized by the current personal attacks and disruptive exclusionary control of discussions regarding the Town of Oro Valley business – or we can demand a leadership that is respectful of all citizen input, and an elected governance that thoughtfully considers differences of opinion."
---
" This is what is at stake. The Town being handed over to the Special interests. Only with a change in the Council can movements like the attached be stopped."
---
"What's at stake is the continued loss of citizen input and future direction of their community. Our elected officials are supposed to be looking out for the greater good as well as being stewards of their money. Continually Oro Valley governance has been bombarded with various citizen commissions being eliminated or if not completely eliminated weakened to the point nobody wants to volunteer. Citizens are often lectured by members of Council. Town codes are being ignored or weakened for the sake of special interest. There is a lack of oversight to Town departments. The General Plan is being ignored for certain developmental gains.
---
It is time to put what "COUNCIL" should mean to the citizen's of Oro Valley to work for the betterment of current and future residents.

• Cooperative 
• Open 
• Understanding 
• Non partisan 
• Civil 
• Integrity 
• Logical"

---
If the Majority-4 get re-elected we'll have more of the same...a government that works for business and developers and repeatedly overlooks the wishes of the citizens.

And if they get re-elected this year, think what could happen in 2016 when they'll still have two years left on their term. There's no guarantee that Garner, Zinkin or Burns will run for re-election. Even if they do, there's no guarantee that one of them won't be replaced in 2016 with another pro-business/pro-developer puppet.

If that happens, the Majority-4 will now be a Super Majority-5 and developers will be lining up for General Plan amendments that will be easily passed by a pro-developer council.

We must get rid of at least one of them in order to prevent that from happening in the future.
---
The Arizona Independent publish an article that, at its conclusion, lists 2 things at stake in this election.  It is worth reading.
---
What do you think is at stake in this election?
---