Excerpts from June 28, 2022 Town Council Candidate Forum: Statement of Melanie Barrett

Today, LOVE is presenting the Opening and Closing Statements of Vice-Mayor Melanie Barrett during the Town Council Candidate Forum. LOVE added the subheadings.
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Melanie Barrett Opening Statement

Background
I’m a 13-year resident of Oro Valley. I’m the mother of 4 great children ages 16 to 5. My husband works at Raytheon. I grew up in San Diego and I love to call Oro Valley home and plan to raise my family here.

I originally ran for office [in 2018] because I felt families in Oro Valley needed to be represented and that local government ought to be more responsive to its citizens than to landowners and developers. Now, 4 years later, I’m running for re-election to finish the great track record that we’ve started and continue making Oro Valley the best place to live, work, and play in Arizona.

What we’ve accomplished
We were able to listen to our residents when we partnered with them to purchase what is now Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve as a Town park rather than see it turned into homes, apartments, and large senior care facilities. We need leadership that sees the potential in this and other parks. In the Marketplace, we helped keep Oro Valley beautiful when we asked for a plan that did NOT include 75 foot, 6-story apartments on a viewshed corridor that blocked beloved Catalina mountain views and included the largest buildings north of downtown. Now the developer is working on a plan to add housing, two hotels, and businesses largely within existing heights. This will help the center thrive while keeping the viewshed as our General Plan and residents expect us to protect.

With recreational opportunities expanding within existing revenues and no new taxes, business growth over 12%, new employers like Leonardo Electronics, annexing the Westward Look Hotel, and being ranks the safest city in Arizona, I am very proud of what we have accomplished and look forward to continuing to improve the things that make Oro Valley great while protecting the things that make us special and unique.

Melanie Barrett Closing Statement
I’m glad for tonight because it helped clarify some of the issues and why I’m running for council. I’m thankful to these gentlemen for wanting to run.

It’s a hard thing to run for council, but if these gentlemen running against the current council are elected, we will have no women on the council and we will have no members on the council under the age of 50. We will have no paid police pension because they’ve said they’re against the police pension. They support 6-story apartments in our scenic corridor and no Naranja Park buildout for our residents and families.

Those are things that are important to me, that we keep those things that make Oro Valley special.

We’re doing great things. We’re the safest community in Arizona. We’re moving in the right direction. We’re bringing in businesses and employers, annexing resorts, managing balanced growth in a smart way to balance our financial future and [the needs of] our residents. So, I ask for your vote to be able to continue moving Oro Valley in a forward direction. Thank you.

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Excerpts from June 28, 2022 Town Council Candidate Forum: Statements of Nicolson and Joyce-Ivey

Today, LOVE is presenting excerpts from the Opening and Closing Statements by Councilmembers Josh Nicolson and Joyce Jones-Ivey during the Town Council Candidate Forum held on June 28th. LOVE added the subheadings.

You can watch the entire Candidate Forum HERE on the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce website.
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Josh Nicolson Opening Statement

Background
I was born and raised in Arizona. I went to school to be an airline pilot and air traffic controller. I moved to Arizona 10 years ago with my beautiful wife and 2 young daughters. Since I joined the Council 4 years ago, I’ve been the Chamber of Commerce liaison, I was on the Budget and Finance Commission when we were doing the Police Pension Bond, and also on Visit Tucson.

Police/Public Safety
Very early on, I pushed to fix our police pension that was growing like a credit card at 7% a year. It ended up being $27 million underfunded. With the recommendation of Stifel Consulting, our newly elected Budget and Finance Commission, and our Town CFO, we ended up using $10 million of our savings to secure a bond at historically low 2.4% interest. This is going to save our taxpayers $30 million over 20 years. This $30 million in savings affords us to give our police officers a raise. They are now the highest paid officers in Southern Arizona. As many police departments throughout the nation are struggling to recruit new officers, our officers have a fully funded pension and the highest pay in Southern Arizona. This will help in recruiting and retaining the best police force.

Town Golf
As many know, I live on the Conquistador Golf Course and that was one of the things we had to tackle the very first year we were in office. We changed operators from Troon to Indigo and we opened up all the holes to public play. This is saving us millions of dollars. We used this extra cash flow to finance the golf course irrigation, build in Naranja park, tennis courts, and many more without any new taxes.

I appreciate your time tonight and I do appreciate everyone getting involved in coming to this Chamber event because it’s important for our citizens to be involved in our local government.

Josh Nicolson Closing Statement
Note: Nicolson set aside his prepared closing statement and opted instead to use his remaining time to address accusations made by candidate Bill Rodman regarding a lack of transparency on the current council.

I want to address one thing -- the transparency.
When Bill [Rodman] is talking about transparency, he’s talking about Executive Session. Executive Sessions are when we have to deal with contracts, hiring, firing, those types of things. Yes, we did have a lot of Executive Sessions because we inherited a whole lot of issues from the prior council.

But what were the results from those Executive Sessions?
We did several Executive Sessions on golf. There was a huge contract. We saved $2 million on golf. We hired our wonderful police chief, Chief Riley. We preserved Vistoso from being developed. We hired Judge Hazel. We annexed Westward Look gaining $800,000 in tax revenue for Oro Valley residents. So I want you to look at transparency. We are transparent, but when you do Executive Sessions, it’s regarding contracts, it’s for legal advice. It’s not talking behind closed doors against the citizens.

Joyce Jones-Ivey Opening Statement

Background
I am a retired 42-year ob-gyn nurse practitioner. I’m married to Jesse Ivey who was a 29-year servant of the LAPD and is also retired. I have lived in Oro Valley for six years now. For the past four years that I’ve been on council, I’ve had the privilege to not only serve, but also be liaison to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board as well as our Amphi school district.

Parks and Recreation
Our community has, since I’ve been on council, has expressed a desire for diversity in outdoor activities for both our seniors and our growing young families. This is a passion for me, that safe parks and a safe community is the best way we can continue to improve the quality of life for all our town residents.

Why I’m running for re-election
I’m running for re-election so we can finish the accomplishments of our first term and strategically and responsibly continue our town’s growth and economic needs. Thank you.

Joyce Jones-Ivey Closing Statement

Oro Valley is a better place today because we have listened to residents and made decisions that benefit all in our community – saving town golf, supporting Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve, expanding Naranja Park, all while improving town finances and continuing to ensure we remain one of the safest towns in Arizona.

I am asking for your vote to continue working to make and keep Oro Valley the best place to live in Arizona.

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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…

Mark Your Calendar: Sun City Candidate Forum

Candidate Forum

Oro Valley Mayor and Town Council Candidates

Sun City Auditorium
1565 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd.

Saturday, August 4th

2:00 to 4:00 PM

Open to the Public ~ Doors open at 1:30 PM