Why should Oro Valley voters be concerned when "Special Interest" groups endorse candidates?
Here's why! Read about the candidates and some or their endorsements below.
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Satish Hiremath Endorsements
Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Says:
"Council Member Mary Snider needs a strong pro-business team to work with. It is crucial that three more business friendly candidates are elected. Satish Hiremath, Lou Waters and Joe Hornat will complete an excellent team to lead the Town of Oro Valley. Council Member Mary Snider needs a strong pro-business team to work with. It is crucial that three more business friendly candidates are elected. Satish Hiremath, Lou Waters and Joe Hornat will complete an excellent team to lead the Town of Oro Valley."
Northern Pima County Chamber of Commerce Says:
"The Chamber’s Endorsed Candidates did very well yesterday! Mary Snider will be the newest Council Member in Oro Valley. Satish Hiremath will be in the general election in May 2010 and so will Lou Waters and Joe Hornat."
Tucson Association of REALTORS Says:
"In the race for Mayor of Oro Valley the Tucson Accociation of Realtors has endorsed Dr. Satish Hiremath."
"Fire Fighters For Hiremath"
Just recently, new signs have appeared--"Fire Fighters for Hiremath." In 2004 Golder Ranch Fire endorsed candidates. Within a month,those candidates elected voted to allow GRFD to take over Town Hall fire service. Subsequently, thousands of Oro Valley residents saw their fire service bills escalate dramatically as Rural Metro Fire Dept effectively was put out of business here.
Oro Valley Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #53
Might the police union feel that Hiremath will be more sympathetic to the fact that the police department is almost 50% of Oro Valley's total budget? Hmmm!
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Joe Hornat Endorsed by:
Oro Valley Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #53
The North Tucson Fire Fighters Assoc.
Northern Pima County Chamber of Commerce
Tucson Association of Realtors
Southern Arizona Home Builders Association
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Lou Waters ENDORSEMENTS
Northern Pima County Chamber of Commerce
North Tucson Firefighters Association
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #53
Arizona State Fraternal Order of Police
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OUR CONCERNS
Chamber of Commerce--- Do we want the chamber to dictate policy? Like, allowing businesses to keep their lights blaring all through the night, to the detriment of home owners and the astronomy community?
Tucson Assoc. of Realtors--- Do we want real estate signs to be all over our streets with little or no control from our Town Council?
Southern Az Home Builders Assoc.--- Do we want the home builders to determine how much new home impact fees should be?
Fire Fighters--- Do we want to chance another rate increase at the whim of our Fire District, which is what happened to thousands of us, when GRFD took over for Rural Metro Fire Department?
Oro Valley Police Unions--- The OV Police unions look out for their own. That's fine, but do we want them to control what is best for the financial stability of Oro Valley? They fought like the dickens to avoid even one layoff, showing a callous attitude to all other town employees.
We can NOT allow these groups to take control of our town. Only Mike Zinkin & Matt Rabb have no Special Interest endorsements. They want the people's endorsement ONLY.
PLEASE--- VOTE FOR MIKE ZINKIN FOR MAYOR & ONLY MATT RABB FOR COUNCIL.
6 comments:
Again, another exaggerated adjective "Special Interest Endorsements Are Scary..." Personally, I don't see why these endorsements are scary. Has it occurred to you that your candidates do not warrant endorsements by any groups other than this blog?
I'm not sure what the fear is regarding the local business community. There seems to be alot of misinformation and a lack of understanding regarding the importance of business in our community! I moved here because of the quality of life. But in order to continue to benefit from that quality of life our town needs income to pay for services. We need businesses to generate this income. It seems like a no brainer to me!!
JayD--- We obviously see things differently.
I'd venture to say most of us came to Oro Valley to enjoy the quality of life you sought.
I don't know when you arrived, but The Zeeman & I arrived in 1993 with our wives.
Has the quality of life improved in the past seventeen years?
Not from our standpoint. Much of the desert has been ravaged. Oro Valley is not much different than Tucson with a bunch of strip malls with retailer's signs in red, orange, yellow, and many other "desert incompatible" colors.
The Chamber of Commerce pushes for lit signs throughout the night, with no consideration for the home owners or the "dark sky" the scientific community desperately requires.
Past councils have approved 60' & 75' hotels---one directly in front of Pusch Peak on the east side of Oracle rd.
Has Vestar and their OV Marketplace added to our quality of life? You probably think so. For us, it's a massive eyesore, with exposed roofs that lok like a landing strip in the evening. On top of that, we're giving that developer millions of dollars for deceiving us into thinking we'd be getting an "upscale" shopping mall. Yeah! Walmart's really "upscale."
Most businesses and especially the small business owners are an asset.
Our complaint is not with them. Our complaint is, and has been, an "all too friendly" council majority that allowed all this to happen.
And you want to know why we're concerned with these candidates getting these endorsements.
I'll tell you why! In the last 17 years we've seen the results. It "ain't" pretty, and will only get worse with another "Special Interest" council majority.
Jay D,
You said, "I don't see why these endorsements are scary."
How about the fact that history repeats itself. In the past, the candidates who were endorsed by Golder Ranch Fire were then beholden to GRFD and our fire taxes DOUBLED!
Candidates endorsed by the Chamber will be beholden to the Chamber and you can then expect Oro Valley businesses to have 24-hour lit signage despite the citizens and the scientific community being against this.
You asked, "Has it occurred to you that your candidates do not warrant endorsements by any groups other than this blog?"
I ask, has it occurred to you to ask WHY do Hiremath-Waters-Hornat warrant endorsements from these groups? There's something in it for THESE GROUPS, or they wouldn't be endorsing them.
I want council members who will be OBJECTIVE, who will base their decisions on WHAT'S being requested rather than on WHO'S requesting it.
You said, "I'm not sure what the fear is regarding the local business community."
The fear is that the business community thinks they should have more clout than the individual homeowner and that their needs should always trump the needs of the citizens. The business community has the Chamber (and Chamber money) to speak for them. Who do the citizens have to speak for them?
Should we not have a business friendly council that would support business growth in Oro Valley? It does seem that since a mojority of our town's revenue comes from businesses that we may want to be good to them...even the big ones. Unless you want a property tax?!
Problem is...I've been listening to the "we need to support business or we're going to need a property tax" argument for years...
And recently, despite all of the town's support for business, and all the economic development agreements, and the addition of the Great Mall of China, we're STILL being told that we may need a property tax in the near future!
We were told that supporting businesses meant no property tax. So either they lied to get what they wanted or they're just incompetent. Either way, why should I listen to them now?
It's true that most of the town's income is from sales and bed taxes. But the fact is that many of the members of the chambers of commerce are service-based businesses that generate no income for the town of Oro Valley at all. And 75% of the businesses that belong to the Northern Pima chamber and presumably an even higher percentage that belong to the Tucson chamber are not even located in Oro Valley, so even if they are retail or hotel, they generate no income for Oro Valley. Therefore, an endorsement from a chamber of commerce doesn't have anything to do with what's in the best interest of the taxpayers.
Real estate agents generate no sales tax revenue for the town, so an endorsement from the association of realtors does not have anything to do with what's in the best interet of the taxpayers.
Obviously, fire fighters receive money from taxpayers; they don't generate money for the town. So an endorsement from fire fighters doesn't have anything to do with what's in the best interest of the taxpayers.
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