It's All Politics

LOVE is receiving input regarding Oro Valley recall election politics from many sources. Some are worthy of full postings. Others, like these, are bits and pieces of information. All of these relate to the politics of the election. Enjoy!

Running on anything but the issue
Mayor Hiremath and Council Members Hornat, Snider and Waters are running away from the reason there is a recall election.

As one of our readers wrote us: "It is election about their judgment; judgment not only in purchasing the El Conquistador Country Club and paying for golf losses with a sales tax increase on you and me; judgment in cutting a deal for this from their major campaign contributor; but also the manner in which they have so cavalierly ignored the needs of thousands of Oro Valley residents and marginalized the input of the three council minority members. That is why there is a recall."

Rather than address that, it appears that Mayor Hiremath continue to try to make this election about anything but that. Watch the Mayor's latest video. Tell us what you think.

Politics played at the 9/11 flag raising commemoration
Two weeks ago, the town hosted a flag raising ceremony at the Oro Valley Community Center and Recreation Center. The raising was to commemorate the 9/11 tragedy. Mayor Hiremath and council members Hornat, Snider and Waters used the event to play politics.

An event such as this is highly solemn in nature. It should never be a venue for politics or campaigning. However, the Majority-4 were there in force that day, and the following was observed and heard by one of our readers:

• Behind the podium, about 40 feet back, was a large campaign sign for the four of them. It was mounted on a parked vehicle.
• The audience was stacked to generate immediate applause once the Mayor approached the podium. They jumped the gun and started clapping before he even spoke and were quite obvious about it.
• The Mayor made sure to introduce attending council members, who also then received rounds of applause. 
• In the Mayor's remarks, he strongly emphasized how wonderful it is to finally have a Community Center as the "gathering place" residents have long wanted. He extolled the virtues of the Community Center both in his opening and closing remarks. The predicted applause ensued both times. 

Was there anything said about the 9/11 tragedy?
 
Phone polling asking loaded, biased questions
According to the PAC "Accountable Government Now" someone or group has retained the telephone survey services of publicpolicypolling.com. Questions being asked include:

• How likely was I to vote in the election? I was given a sliding scale from Definitely to not likely There were questions about the recall 
• Do you think there should have been a recall? Yes or No
• Did you support the recall? Yes or No
• Do you support the purchase of the community center for $1m? Yes or 
• Do you support the temporary ½ cent sales tax increase for the community center

The questions being asked are biased in that they don't tell the full story. For example, the community center also includes a money losing golf courses. The total investment will be well over $12 million.
The sales tax is not temporary. It has no sunset. It was instituted to pay for the losses from the golf courses.

As we said, the questions being asked are biased in that they don't tell the full story. But that's politics.

Say it's so, Joe
Then, we received intel that Council Member Joe Hornat didn't really want to run in this recall election. He is running, we heard, because the four (Hiremath, Hornat, Snider and Waters) had to run as a slate.

Frankly, these four should be embarrassed that they have been "recalled." Besides, why do they need the aggravation and the embarrassment? Why is retaining power to so important to them?

Rather than back down, they cling to keeping their job like its "life or death".

But that's what politicians do.

Oro Valley's competition with private business increases as town "puts lipstick on the pig"
It is business as usual at town hall. The Town Of Oro Valley continues to push to compete with private enterprise.

• The town is pushing head-long into building a first-class restaurant at the community center as we reported last week. The restaurant has added special events and special pricing to entice customers.
• Then the town is launching a golf membership referral program which includes direct marketing.
• The town continues to hold design meetings around changes to the community center.
• The town is creating a new theme for the Pusch Ridge course, as we reported Monday.

As one reader wrote us: "Many of the new members they gain, will be members lost by the Oro Valley Country Club, Vistoso and the Views. Those businesses will in turn lower their rates and offer promotions to be competitive. It is just wrong for the town to be competing with Oro Valley golf courses, restaurants and fitness centers and subsidized by the taxpayers."

Some assert that this push is all politics with the hope of making the Majority-4 decision to purchase the El Conquistador Country Club look good.

Well, you can put "lipstick on the pig' in an attempt to make you think its not a pig, but, in the case of the El Conquistador Country Club Golf, it really is a pig.

It's never good when the public sector competes with the private sector, unless, of course, you are a communist or a socialist.  Learn more here.

Incumbent sign blights Oracle and Lambert Lane
Then, there's the humongous sign the recalled officials posted on the Hiremath Dentistry parcel at Pusch View Lane and Oracle. Its an ugly red and blue sign adding even more blight to what use to be Oro Valley's scenic corridor. Oh yeah. That went away with the Majority-4 approval for rezoning for 800 apartments on Oracle Road.  If they are reelected, they will likely approve 5-story buildings behind home depot. They already did that once; but a design technicality will have them do it a second time.

Oracel Road scenic corridor? Not.

Their Majority-4 sign blight and now they gets even bigger
The Majority-4 signs are about the size of a small billboard! They are 4x8. They blight the beautiful community that they profess to love.

Now, we understand that some of their signs have an added  sign on top! The law requires that a sign may not be greater than 32 square feel so that needs to be removed if, of course, the town chooses to enforce code.

Bits and Pieces

Oro Valley's Golf Course losing even more than projected
Mayor Hiremath, Council Members Hornat, Snider and Waters and the Town Of Oro Valley do not tout the financial results of Oro Valley's new golf course. Though they would like you to think otherewise, the golf course is the centerpiece of why they face recall in November.

The financial results of the golf course are awful!

The July results for golf at the El Conquistador Country Club golf course are in. Total revenue from Golf was $98,781 That is $65,826 less than the budget. That is a 40% shortfall from the Troon based budget of $164,608.

Remember, every dollar of lost revenue increases the loss by $1. This is a loss of  in addition to what the town projected the golf course would lose in July. That number was a loss of $259,252. Add this loss in, and we project that course lost well over $325,000 in just one month.

Why didn't the revenue even come close to plan? Actual rounds were only 71.82% of the projected rounds. Actual revenue per round were only 83.56% of projected revenue.

Troon, the contract manager of the golf course, projected in the budget for July 4,556 rounds of golf at $36.13 per round. The actual number of round played in July was 3,272 at $30.19 per round.

As of July, there are a total of 198 golf members.

Fortunately, Oro Valley's minority council members are keeping a close eye on the situation. This from council member Brendan Burns: "If we continue on the trajectory of achieving only 71.82% of the projected rounds and only 83.56% of projected revenue, the effect on our budget will be catastrophic"

Our feeling is that Oro Valley is in big trouble even if it reaches what now appear to be optimistic financial projections.

Others question Oro Valley's sustainability
This from council member Mike Zinkin: "At the League of Cities and Towns I reconnected with friends from throughout the State. The common question was: What is going on in Oro Valley? When I told them about the purchase of 45 holes of golf, a restaurant and a bunch of tennis course, they had one common question: 'How confident are you that Oro Valley can sustain themselves into the future?'"

Mike's conclusion: "With losses on the golf course alone, not including the the community enter and restaurant, along with the needed improvements, I am not very confident that Oro Valley can continue without robbing the Contingency Fund or asking for a bond."  

Are you kidding? Hornat claims to be a"Proven Fiscal Conservative"
Council Member Joe Hornat lists "proven fiscal conservative" as a reason that you should vote for him in November. He provides no facts to support his assertion. We see no basis for it.

The fact is that, while he has been on council, Oro Valley spending has nearly doubled. He voted to double the utility tax. He voted to increase the sales tax one half percent. His actual actions make him a big spender.

Cox creates website supporting Majority-4
Oro Valley resident Don Cox has created a web site to support the Majority-4. This one is funded by his Triple-E Pac. You can see it at http://www.keepovstrong.com. The site uses the same picture as the ""Stand For Civility" site that is funded by Council Members Hornat, Snider and Waters.

According to Cox: "Triple E PAC was formed in January 2015, for the purpose of informing folks about what turned out to be a botched referendum effort. Since then the purpose has changed and it is now being used to show support for the Mayor, and the three council persons. We are receiving support from a broad base of constituents and keepovstrong.com is one of the products of that support. You'll see more."

Bristow creates "Accountable Government Now"-A PAC seeking change
Oro Valley resident Don Bristow created a PAC called "Accountable Government Now" ("AGN"). According to their press release: "Accountable Government Now has a two-fold purpose. First, to assure Steve Didio, Ryan Hartung, Shirl Lamonna and Patrick (Pat) Straney get elected to serve us, the residents, on the Oro Valley Town Council. Second, to help these new candidates overcome the misinformation and half-truths being put out there by the group of 4; Mayor Hiremath and Councilmembers Hornat, Snider, and Waters. Our messages will be truthful and informative"

Learn more here.

Has The Community Center rebuild gone awry?
The town is refurbishing the El Conquistador Country Club house and restaurant to try to make it into a community center. It held design meetings for the public in the past several weeks seeking resident input. We received several reports on the meeting.

According to these reports:

• "The people attending the first meeting were former Country Club members who wanted the restaurant redone. It's as though they want to have a country club at our expense."
• At the second one, there a large numbers of the Oro Valley Youth Advisory Board requesting all sorts of fun stuff. Most of them will ever use it given that they are graduating and leaving town. 

"Attendees at the second meeting was almost exclusively from three groups: The old youth advisory council, current members of the community center, Majority-4 sycophants.This is not  a cross section of Oro Valley residents," writes one resident.

The resident warns: "If the residents don't like the final outcome/impact of the comm center they have no one to blame but themselves." 

"Full steam ahead" on community center restaurant
Paul Kessler of Oro Valley's Development and Infrastructure Department, stated at the community center remolding meeting of August 17, that support for a restaurant was overwhelming.  Therefore, planning for a full scale restaurant and bar is proceeding.

One resident wrote us: "I would like to know when and how it was determined support was overwhelming. I do know at the first remolding meeting there was overwhelming support. Overwhelming meaning approximately 30 current members, including Hornat and Waters and their wives."

The resident continued: "There has been no effective public outreach since the first meeting. It is full speed ahead with what the Council and staff want with little input for all Oro Valley citizens. The citizens are paying 1/2% sales tax to remodel and operate this facility. It isn't owned by the small percentage of residents/non-residents who are members."

We wonder: Why does Oro Valley want to compete with private enterprise?

Better option: Close the restaurant down; Use the space for community center.

Rape Aggression Defense class begins this weekend
Oro Valley, Arizona (August 19, 2015) - The Oro Valley Police Department (OVPD) is hosting a free self-defense class called Rape Aggression Defense (R.A.D). The training is for females ages 15 and older.

R.A.D. System is a program of realistic, self-defense tactics and techniques. It begins with awareness, prevention, risk reduction and avoidance, while progressing on to the basics of hands-on defense training.

The dates for the next course are August 22 and 29, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene East Campus, 440 W. Calle Concordia.

Attendees should wear comfortable workout attire, as this is a physical class. Please bring a lunch. To register, contact Sgt. Amy Graham at (520) 229-5081. (Oro Valley Police Department Press Release)