Bits and Pieces

More evidence of Special Interest Influence
Mayor Hiremath stated that the discussion to purchase the El Con Country Club and Golf Courses from Humberto Lopez/HSL Properties began in mid-2014. Town records reveal this to be true as the initial meeting took place on June 18, 2014.

However, what Hiremath never mentions is that just one month prior to that meeting and again one month after that meeting (the meetings that would set the stage for the Town’s $1 million dollar deal with HSL) Humberto Lopez/HSL Properties donated a total of $14,000 to the campaigns of Hiremath-Hornat-Snider-Waters.

And they wonder why residents don’t believe their claim that special interest donations do not influence their decisions.

Another broken promise
In October 2015, Mayor Hiremath was quoted in the Explorer as stating:

“The upgrades for the (Community Center) buildings and golf courses will be paid for by a 0.5% increase in our sales tax rate. There is no borrowing involved so there would be no long-term debt. We are paying cash as we go.” [Oro Valley Recall Election Candidate Answers, Explorer, 10/21/15]

Fast-forward to the June 6, 2018 Town Council meeting:
Mayor Hiremath and the Town Council voted unanimously to bond for $6 million dollars in order to remodel the outdated Community Center and upgrade the aging golf course irrigation lines.

What happened to the upgrades being paid for with the half-cent sales tax increase? Looks like just another broken promise from Hiremath-Hornat-Snider-Waters.

Incumbent Flyer Myths – It’s the Recession stupid
The incumbents (Hiremath-Hornat-Snider-Waters) distributed a Myths vs. Facts flyer where they attempt to answer the so-called myths about their 8 years on council. We don’t have time to address all of their excuses, but this one was particularly amusing.

Myth: “This council is putting up too many homes too fast.”

Their Response: “From 2000-2010, the number of home permits issued was an average of 383 home permits per year. Since 2010, during this council’s tenure, the number of home building permits issued has been an average of only 182 per year (a 45% decrease).”

The Whole Truth: First of all, it’s disingenuous to compare a 10-year period with an 8-year period, but more importantly, they omitted the fact that the recession began in 2008 and continued through their first five years in office, 2010-2015. Homebuilders stopped building during the recession. The lack of new home permits during this time wasn’t because the incumbents were being selective with their approvals, it was because there were barely any developer applications to approve!

According to Town Finance Director, Stacey Lemos, Oro Valley was still feeling the results of the recession until around 2014-15. Quoting her from the June 6th budget discussions:

“The adopted budget amounts fluctuate (over the years) and not only reflect the impact of The Great Recession when we saw those budgets dip below $100M during FY 2011/12 through 2013/14, but we also see them start to rebound (in 2015) as the local construction activity started to gain speed in the single family and multi family housing markets.”

In a separate section of their “Myths” flyer, the incumbents admitted that their tenure took place “during Oro Valley’s worst recession in history.” This means that they knowingly included the low number of permits approved during The Great Recession in order to skew the calculations in their favor.

Town records reveal that in 2010 and 2011 (during the Recession) they approved only 50 and 47 single family home permits respectively…but by 2016 and 2017 they had approved 302 and 335 single family home permits respectively.

Town permit records do not yet show that in 2018, they also approved a total of 748 new “cluster homes” just in the LaCholla area. So while they claim that since taking office in 2010, their average is 182 home permits per year, that average jumps to 462 per year in the past three years. (302 + 335 + 748 = 1405 divided by 3 = 462)

Councilmember Mary Snider omits important details at El Con Forum
During the Candidate Forum held at the El Conquistador Hotel on July 31st, Councilmember Snider claimed that the proof that they listen to citizens regarding development proposals was that the Capella rezoning (west side of LaCholla between Naranja and Lambert) took three years to pass.

What she didn’t say was that the Major General Plan Amendments for this parcel were approved in May 2015 (after 9 months of negotiations with a citizens’ group in which Snider played no part) and that it was the applicant who chose to not come back to request the Rezoning until three years later in 2018.

Mayor Hiremath lies about “the simple things”
In the June 20th Explorer, Hiremath made this assertion about the challengers: “If they are willing to spread falsehoods to you about simple things, then you have to ask yourself what will they be willing to tell you on serious matters if elected?”

If you watched the Take Back OV video that we posted on Friday (Mayoral Fiction and Fantasy) you now know that while Mayor Hiremath claimed that, “It felt good to interact with the community while canvassing for signatures” and “we didn’t really get any negative feedback at all” (implying that he had done some serious door-to-door canvassing), a review of his petitions (public record) revealed that he collected only 20 signatures.

If he’s willing to spread falsehoods to you about simple things…

Guest View: Mike Zinkin ~ The Town Council appears to have some philosophical problems

Let’s begin with some historical facts.

December 17, 2014 Council Meeting. During the December 17, 2014 council meeting, during the discussions about purchasing the Community Center and Golf Courses, the Mayor bragged that he would not saddle the residents of Oro Valley with a 20-year bond debt for the Community Center and Golf. (Scroll down to the article “Then and Now” published on Monday to read his exact quotes.)

During that same meeting, the Power Point presentation presented by then Town Manager Greg Caton showed how the Community Center/Golf expenses would be covered with the 25% increase in our sales tax.

January 6, 2016 Council Meeting. Councilmembers Burns, Garner, and myself pointed out that just six months into operations, the golf investment had over $1.9M in losses and the Overlook Restaurant had over $148,000 in losses. Vice-Mayor Waters responded by chastising us and telling us to “get on board.” And with that, Hiremath-Hornat-Snider-Waters dug in their heels, accepting the fact that the Town would lose money on this endeavor for at least 5 years.

April 6, 2016 Council Meeting. Councilmember Snider blamed the lack of golf memberships on information that I had presented to the public which she said was “creating a headwind in town.”

Councilmember Hornat, when asked by a Channel 4 reporter, “What is your Plan B?” replied, “I’m not sure there is a Plan B.”

Burying their heads in the sand
When the monthly “actuals” repeatedly failed to match the “projections,” I asked then Town Manager, Greg Caton to revise the estimates. He refused to do so, replying that he worked for the majority of Council, not just one council member. The majority did not desire to see revised estimates (it’s easier to bury your head in the sand) and thus they were never prepared.

That Council majority is still in office and will not press Troon for accurate estimates.

Now let’s look at the current state of affairs.

The Town Budget for FY 2018/19 is $143.2 million. That’s $20 million more than the budget for FY 2017/18 which was $123.2 million.

After Mayor HIremath said in 2014 that he would not saddle residents with a 20-year bond for Community Center and Golf expenses, the FY 2018/19 budget includes…wait for it…a $6 million dollar, 20-year bond for Community Center and Golf Course improvements.

Town Policy forbids bonding for continuing expenses
The current Oro Valley Financial and Budgetary Policies forbid bonding for continuing expenses. One could argue that the Community Center/Golf operation is a continuing expense, but the Town is framing it as a ONE-TIME expense since the bond money will be used for improvements and not for monthly expenses such as payroll or utilities.

Town’s Philosophy: Use one-time revenues for one-time expenses
And now the plot thickens because if we look at it from the Town’s perspective as a ONE-TIME expense, there is still a problem. The Town’s philosophy has always been to use one-time revenues for one-time expenses. Yet they plan to support payment of the bond with the annual $800,000 in sales tax revenues from OV Marketplace that the Town will receive when the sales tax sharing agreement with Vestar expires in November 2019. Sales tax revenue is not one-time revenue, it is an ongoing revenue. Therefore, using sales tax revenues to pay for a bond is against the Town’s philosophy.

To clarify, using one-time revenues for one-time expenses is within the Town’s policy. Using ongoing revenues to pay for one-time expenses is against the Town’s policy. But we all know by now that this Town Council does not follow Town policies or philosophies.

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Mike Zinkin has a Bachelor’s degree in history and government from the University of Arizona and a Master’s degree in Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education from California State University, Northridge. He was a commissioned ensign in the United States Navy Reserve. He was an Air Traffic Controller for 30 years. He and his wife moved to Oro Valley in 1998. Mike served on the Oro Valley Development Review Board from 2005-2009 and the Board of Adjustment from 2011-2012. He served on the Town Council from 2012-2016 during which time he was named a Fellow for the National League of Cities University, he was a member of the National League of Cities Steering Committee for Community and Economic Development, and a member of the Arizona League of Cities Budget and Economic Development Committee.

Guest View: Mike Zinkin ~ Then and Now

It's always very revealing to look back on what our overly-confident mayor and council were asserting back in December 2014 when they decided to purchase the El Con Community Center and three Golf Courses and compare it to what they are telling us now. While they will never admit that they were wrong about any of their promises or predictions, a look back in time tells the story.

Flashback to December 17, 2014

Below are two quotes from Mayor Hiremath from the 12/17/14 council meeting. This is the meeting when the council voted to purchase the HSL El Conquistador property:

"...We’re telling you that in the first two years, we’re going to lose major money on it…I know we’re going to lose money, but I think we have a good plan to help turn that around and that includes capital investment.”

“A lot of things have been floated around and one is a bond…Councilmember Burns mentioned it. Councilmember Garner mentioned it. How are they going to pay for the bond?...What’s the revenue source going to be? It doesn’t matter what it is…It’s not free money. There’s interest on it. Why do I want to saddle my residents…to pay extra money when we have the cash?"

Fast-Forward to June 2018
Well here we are, 3½ years later, and the new FY 2018/19 budget includes a $6MM bond to finance capital improvements required for the Community Center and Golf Courses. What happened?

I’ll tell you what happened. The Mayor and Council, along with the staff, completely ignored what was clear to everyone else. The money promised by the Mayor and Town Staff in 2014 NEVER MATERIALIZED.

The Town’s 2014 Power Point presentation

According to the Town’s Power Point presentation on 12/17/14, the promised capital improvements were:

                               FY 14/15                FY 15/16                   FY 16/17                   FY 17/18

Golf                        $50,000                  $1,310,500                $1,282,500                 $130,000
Comm. Ctr.             $760,000                $550,000                   $490,000                    $466,000
Total                       $810,000                $1,860,500                $1,772,500                 $596,000

The Town’s chart below shows the specific work that was to be done and in what year it was scheduled.

Fast-Forward to March 2018

Below is what they actually spent on capital improvement.

                   FY 14/15                 FY 15/16                FY 16/17               FY 17/18 (Thru 3/31)

                    $37,873                   $499,774                $72,414                  $29,464

Deficient     $772,127                 $1,360,726             $1,700,086             $566,536

Summary
• They promised to spend a total of $5,039,000 in capital improvements by FY 17/18.
• They actually spent just $639,525.
• This is $4,399,475 less than what they promised.

They have been wrong repeatedly, forcing them to renege on their promises year after year. It is now 3½ years later and this council still refuses to accept reality. We cannot allow them to continue in office for another four years.