We thought you might enjoy reading a sampling of comments that LOVE has received regarding the Town Council election along with reader comments that we found on Take Back OV.•While the challengers are out canvassing neighborhoods in the heat, the incumbents sit in air conditioned comfort while paying a Campaign Consulting firm (Saguaro Strategies $50,000) to run their campaign. Not the People's candidates.
•Please vote for restoring balance to Oro Valley Town Council. Vote for more dialogue, not less. Vote for more influence in YOUR town. Vote for people who have run a grassroots campaign and not a slick, PHX based, professionally run campaign to smooth-over their unpopular track record. Vote for new ideas and new resolve to put OV Citizens first!
•They pull out the same old tired endorsements every election year. Police, fire, some Army general, and some local Reverend. Their endorsements are as stale as their ideas and are meant to draw your attention away from their abysmal record.
•What is built is nothing special. No charm, no added character, just high density housing that clears the desert that makes OV unique only to make it look like anywhere USA. That means it's a zoning and development failure. What’s frustrating is that I feel like we have no power in the situation. It feels like we can go to these meetings over and over again and in large numbers and we can voice our concerns and thoughts, but that’s the end of it. In the end, they don’t care what we want. They just want money.
•The latest spin from the incumbents is a desperate tactic that they use every election year..."Save your Police and SRO." Show me where any of the challengers said that they were going to dismantle the OVPD or end the SRO program. They haven't. It's a completely made up soundbite to scare uninformed residents into re-electing the incumbents. Yet the incumbents accused the challengers of running a soundbite campaign! Two of the challengers have children in Oro Valley schools. Why would they want to get rid of the SRO’s? Why would they want to weaken the police force? It’s nonsense.
•I noticed on the campaign posters that the incumbent Oro Valley administration has been “endorsed” by Police and Fire. I strongly feel that it is inappropriate for Public Service Organizations and employees to be engaged in City/Town politics.
•If re-elected, he (Hiremath) will even be more abusive to those who dare question him. Look at the town council. They have, over the past 8 years, been extremely abrupt, rude, dismissive, and condescending to residents in council meetings, in public, and especially on social media. It’s who they are. Look at the Steve Solomon issue. He’s the worst yet the mayor is silent. The mayor never holds back on residents, but Solomon’s inappropriateness is acceptable.
