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Solomon is rude to residents during council meetings
This is just one example, but there are many more. During the December 6, 2017 Town Council meeting, the room was packed due to multiple General Plan amendments on the agenda that night which would lead to more destruction of our beautiful desert surroundings. Two dozen residents spoke at the podium in opposition to those amendments.
You can read some of those residents’ comments below, followed by Councilmember Solomon’s disrespectful response to those residents.
Excerpt of Residents’ comments:
“…a 300-acre critical wildlife corridor where bobcats, javelina, hawks, owls, and other wildlife live, reproduce, hunt, and travel up and down, to and from the Tortolita Mountains. This land is pristine Sonoran Desert and has over 100 giant saguaros including a very rare double crested saguaro. It has 7 large washes running through it. There are 8 archeological sites on this land that preserve our history and our heritage, and many Ironwood trees that are 300-400 years old…I read all the letters on the Oro Valley website and 119 were opposed to this development. Only one was in support.”
“…You have been letting the developers strip the land…every piece of the land has been stripped. Saguaro cactus and large cactus have been destroyed and those developers have been working at night 24-hours a day and your staffers tell me that they don’t have enough staff people to monitor their operations.”
“…When we moved to Oro Valley with our two youngest children, this was a beautiful community with a lot of green space and our daughters thrived here and eventually graduated from UA. But when they come home now, they say, ‘What’s happened to Oro Valley? It’s going from green to brown’ …all the old growth is gone…The more that we blade Oro Valley, the less healthy it is for our children. You have to leave green space. Every new development I see in Oro Valley right now, there is less and less green space.”
Excerpt of Council Member Solomon’s condescending response:
There’s a lot of misconceptions going around, and tonight sounded like a “We hate Oro Valley Fest.” You folks have some misinformation unfortunately…and it’s not fair for you to come in here and make up stories about Oro Valley blading down saguaros in the middle of the night. That’s an outright lie. That doesn’t happen. It’s never happened. If it did happen people would be behind bars… So since you all had your hour of bashing Oro Valley, I took my 5 minutes to tell you that it’s not true, and you know what? If you don’t want to live in Oro Valley because you don’t like it, don’t live in Oro Valley.According to Solomon, Oro Valley residents are liars, they’re misinformed, and if they don’t like living here, they should leave. For the record, it was actually Solomon who was misinformed. Builder Fairfield Homes bulldozed multiple mature saguaros in 2015. He did not go to jail. He received a measly fine of $27,000 for violating the town code and grading the site without permission.
A resident knocks Solomon off his high horse
After Solomon’s condescending speech, another resident took to the podium to respond to him.
“…just because some of us stand up and say that there are things going on that we don’t like, does not mean that we don’t love the town. To suggest that anyone who doesn’t love everything that’s happening in this town should leave is an insult and I take great offense at that. It is our democratic responsibility to pay attention, to notice what is going in a direction that we don’t care for and to speak up.”
Unfortunately, Solomon's behavior gets worse
This disrespectful behavior towards Oro Valley residents is only the tip of the Solomon iceberg. Next Wednesday, in the second half of this article, you will read about Solomon’s lawsuit threats against Oro Valley residents who have dared to question his actions plus his violent outburst against a female council member which led to the mayor threatening to have him removed from council chambers.
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The second half of “A pattern of incivility and disrespect” will be published next Wednesday.
