Fountain Hills voters turned out in force to push the mayor and council majority back to the right. With Voter turnout over 91% Fountain hills voters elected Gerry Friedel as Mayor over the sitting Mayor, Ginny Dickey by a margin of 55% to 44%. Gayle Earle was elected in the primary and Rick Watts was added to council with the highest total of votes for council in the general election with 6885. Peggy McMahon, in second place with 6592 leads Matt Corrigan by 7 votes currently preventing the conservative sweep. This is currently within the margin requiring a recount results of which should be final in early December.
The swing to the right occurred in spite of a constant attack drumbeat from the F PAC against Friedel, Watts, Earle, Corrigan and of course their favorite punching bag, the conservative, EVIL, Reclaim Our Town (ROT) PAC. Standard Democrat playbook was on full display with lawsuits, false claims, race, LGBTQ+ persecution, and doom prophecy for Fountain Hills unless Dickey, McMahon and Corey were elected. In the end, Dickey and Corey where not selected and the most disrespectful councilperson in Fountain Hills history hangs on by a thread.
In the middle of all this, last election cycle's (2022), self proclaimed "Constitutional Conservative" councilperson, Kalivianakis switched sides and supported Dickey, McMahon and the left. Even if McMahon pulls through, 3 conservatives will be added to Toth and Skillercorn making for a long two years for that pair. Friedel knows a thing or two about that having spent time being marginalized with former councilman Spelich. Go to the commentary page for Briefly Speaking and their "Turkey of the Year" award.
Some will be thankful this holiday season while others will be angry and so goes the town as well as the country. Voters swept the left out of majorities in all three branches of government in the national elections as well. Change is in the air and it's a cold wind for some and a warm summer breeze for others. Happy Thanksgiving.
From top to bottom of this election the Democratic playbook is on full display. Trump vs Harris, Gallego vs Lake, Dickey et al. vs Friedel, Watts, Corrigan. The playbook goes as the headline says, Lies, Lawfare, and Projections. Publish material that is not true, create lawsuits or the threats of such against your opponent, and accuse them of what you are actually doing. So let’s fact check a mailer by the incumbent mayor, Dickey, and recall just a few examples to the contrary. Readers would still be reading at Christmas if the list was complete. From the top:
· Listens to all residents, false. Two of the many issues over the last two terms of this mayor saw residents desire stronger ordinances governing detox houses in their neighborhoods. First Dickey strung it along using the town attorney and her cabal for years. When finally forced to enact something under the last election cycle, she led the way to not having an inspection provision to verify compliance. Then when the residents wanted an ordinance protecting them from a small wave 5G tower in the right of way in front of their house, she worked, again, with the town attorney and her cabal to hide information from the public and the town planning and zoning commissioners and string that out indefinitely for years. Just two examples of many.
· Knows Our Community, partially true. She knows her followers well and favors them, suppresses those who disagree with her views. Watch any council meeting for examples of this.
· Focused on Community Safety, false. While professing that she presides over the safest community anywhere, she ignores that it is not as safe since she took office. Here are two recent alerts of many from “Fountain Hills Alerts” concerning a neighborhood in town.
Tuesday, October 8, 2024 2:19 PM 4 Thefts near your neighborhood over the last 7 days. That’s 2.1 times more than average.
Oct 15, 2024 at 2:06 PM
4 Vandalisms near your neighborhood over the last 7 days. That’s 3.7 times more than average.
2.1 and 3.7 times more than average, sounds less safe to the Alternative.
· Truthful and Trustworthy, false. The Alternative already exposed that Mayor Dickey was a founding member of the hate page, “Outspoken in Fountain Hills” from 2015. The mailer is not truthful and being a member of a semi secret hate page is not trustworthy. Further she was witnessed meeting with the leader of the negative, “F PAC”, in a local business. Coordinating messaging with a PAC is forbidden as an elected official, or perhaps it was just a social visit. Believe what you wish. More about them in a minute.
· Protects Local Resources, false. Spent money chasing roundabouts and converting the centennial circle into a green new deal windmill landfill rather than fixing the aging roads. Only handed out about $300K of the $11MM COVID money to businesses. Worked since 2021 against the completion of the Park Place project with her associates as a personal vendetta against the developer. It is worth noting that the lowest interest rates this country will ever see came in 2021 and 2022. This project may never be completed and that is a detriment to the downtown development. This issue deserves and will get an article completely devoted to the history of this project. So much for protecting resources.
· Calm Civil and Respectful, calm yes, civil and respectful, false. This mayor sat by and tolerated a loud, vile, accusatory outbreak by one of her followers at the January 17th call to the public so much so that the town attorney had to have the person removed in an expletive filled tirade. How’s that for civil? But yet she gavels those in calm disagreement into silence. As for respectful, reporter Joan Wibbers briefly reports on civility next.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Councilwoman McMahon, cohort of Mayor Dickey puts her head down and covers her eyes in disrespect to everyone she disagrees with and believe it or not, this is an improvement from when she would get up and would walk out entirely. Mayor Dickey has always tolerated this disrespect from McMahon.
The Avenue has been adorned with this yellow car taking up patron parking for weeks on end without moving and with a Dickey sign on both doors. Essentially a political advertisement in the town no sign zone. The car is owned by the boyfriend of the Vice Mayor, Kalivianakis. Notice the license plate. For those who aren't familiar, ROT (Reclaim Our Town) is a conservative PAC who supported Kalivianakis in 2022. Kalivianakis apparently is suffering from short term memory loss as the Alternative learned that Kalivianakis has been working with Dickey for a year in secret to undermine the Mayoral run of Councilman Friedel. Sources report, "she told me to my face last fall that Ginny would help get her elected Mayor in 2026, and as the Council's perpetual swing vote, she already had far more power than Ginny"....... And now one can see why all of her votes have been with Ginny since the nearly the beginning of her term.
Completing the Democrat playbook is the PAC supporting Dickey. The F PAC. The Alternative refuses to lend credence to this group by providing a link, you can find them if you chose to do so. This is the home of Democrat lawfare and projection, the posterchild if you will. The little sign next to Reclaim's sign epitomizes them. Leftists Ruin Everything is an opinion one might say based in fact given the following list of cities across America: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington DC and so forth all a mere shadow of their former selves. All governed by the left. The sign, an opinion held by many one might say. Just an opinion and a direction to keep the left out.
OK, so the little sign doesn't make any sense but most of the website and mailed propaganda is just fiction. Attacks on librarians, religious leaders, Chaos, Division, Distrust all examples of projection. Accuse others of what you do yourself, PROJECTION.
Cap it off with a lawsuit threat against Mayor Dickey's Mayoral opponent, Friedel and you've got your lawfare. The Democrat trifecta. Lying about issues, accusing others of what you are doing yourself, projection, and baseless lawsuits.
Right here in Fountain Hills. Since the Alternative did not give the link to the F PAC site, we won't give out the Reclaim link either. Find them, read them and readers will know everything about these two groups. THEN VOTE if you haven't already.
It’s possible that Arizona Republicans have the wrong idea about election fraud.
Manipulating ballot totals is an obvious goal of fraud. However, the lingering impact of election fraud appears to be less about math, and more about psychology.
Voters in Maricopa County have been chronically distressed by feuds with county officials and chaotic election irregularities. Reports of dysfunctional polling centers, corrupted machines, ballot trafficking, and broken chain of custody have been endless, and every election year it gets worse (so we think).
In November 2018, Maricopa County voters were shut out of assigned voting centers, emergency voting centers popped up appearing to favor Democrats, and contrary to State law, mail-in ballots in Democrat districts were being opened and tabulated before signatures were verified.
By 2020, election irregularities were widespread nationally. It took 3 weeks to finalize Arizona results, and progressive non-profits continue to browbeat Republican rivals well into 2024.
The same irregularities prevailed in 2022. This time, Republicans outperformed Democrat voter registrations by 166,000 people, but 385,332 eligible Republicans did not vote in 2022 (from L2 Data Mapping courtesy Hannah Toth).
On October 7, 2024, Arizona Christian University published a survey validating concerns about the Christian vote. Sixty-six percent of respondents self-identified as Christianbut indicated that they were not likely to vote in the upcoming election. One of the chief reasons is the belief that their vote won’t count. That estimated number of non-voters is 85 million.
In typical Arizona races, margins range from a few hundred to tens of thousands votes. Alternatively, the number disillusioned non-voters can range from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions!
Republican losses due to cheating are minuscule compared to self-inflicted losses arising from not voting.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Year after year, voters have been threatened and stressed. Unfortunately, vast numbers have been duped into avoiding elections, when they should be DOING THE EXACT OPPOSITE. Instead of becoming vigilant, voters are reticent; instead of angry, they’re disheartened.
Individuals don’t feel there’s anything they can do about the cheating. Ironically, the response of not voting has potential for the greatest harm, yet this is completely within each individual’s control.
Vote Nov 5th!
I first met David Spelich on the way to the 2018 Council race. He was running with now , Councilman Gerry Friedel and Marcus Von Denowitz. In that race, Spelich was elected, Friedel and Von Denowitz lost. I hosted a meet and greet at my house and Spelich's main focus was the recovery of uncollected funds by the town. Spelich won, the others lost. Ginny Dickey was elected Mayor and that's where this story begins, but the trail of financial irresponsibility by the town under Town Manager Grady Miller goes back years. In his first days in office Spelich uncovered $126K in environmental fees and $655K in uncollected court fees. He unmasked Miller's attempted plan to put the Fountain Hills employees into the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) costing the town large pension payments, benefitting a couple people, but mostly himself. Miller also oversaw the construction of Fire Station #2 on Fountain Hills Blvd to the tune of $400K overbudget.
However, that's about as far as it went with the council having a liberal mayor and majority even though Councilman Spelich openly said at a public meeting that generating revenue for the town and collecting what is due is not a partisan issue. Eventually Friedel, now a Mayoral candidate for 2024, joined the council to fill a vacated seat and thus began the left's majority marginalization of these two thoughtful men.
Another issue which should not have been partisan, but gives all the appearances of being so is the law enforcement contract with MCSO. Spelich with 24 years in law enforcement went to Town Manager, Grady Miller, and merely asked to sit in on the MCSO contract negotiations and was turned away. Councilman Spelich for his years on the Chicago PD force could see the town was being shorted manpower with its associated overcharge, and then charged overtime, double time by the existing deputies resulting in 2 egregious overcharges to the town. He also noticed Fountain Hills was paying for the police services of Rio and Tonto Verde. The median home price, MEDIAN, home price in those communities is over $800K. That's more than Fountain Hills. Let that sink in while you contemplate the fact that FH was reimbursed ZERO and that policy continues to this day under Dickey.
Now to put the capper on the MCSO contract under the term of Mayor Dickey, Fountain Hills has endured a 100% price increase in service charges while at the same time those very services were reduced. Putting some numbers to that, the MCSO contract in 2018 when Dickey took office was about $3.2 million/year. The number currently on the table being negotiated is $6.2 million or about 50% of the entire town budget. Putting this into greater context, the CPI (consumer price index, and index of inflation) numbers over the last 5.75 years:
That's an average of 4.5% over that time which should equate to about a 25% increase from 2018 to date, not 100%. If that was not bad enough, now add the reduced services and overtime charges resulting from the reduced services of somewhere between $2.4-$3 million and you have a fleecing of the town under Mayor Dickey and Sheriff Penzone. 100% contract increases and another 100% in charges for reduced services in just 5 years. These same practices by the Penzone regime is why Queen Creek dropped their MCSO contract and formed their own police department. Startup costs are high but in the end, Queen Creek decided they would have better law enforcement for less money in the long run.
You may or may not like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, but this never occurred during his tenure or at least anything like this that he would have had time to correct. This article began with the statement that this should not be a partisan issue but the facts belie that. Mayor Dickey (D), Sheriff Paul Penzone (D). Why would anyone look out for one man while ignoring the 24,000 citizens that an oath was sworn to protect? That is the question one should be asking if this is not a partisan issue.
Stay tuned for the complete audio interview with former councilman Spelich. It is an informative look into the Fountain Hills town government over the 4 years he spent serving the town as a councilman.
An important PUBLIC HEARING FOR ANYONE CONCERNED WITH 5G ANTENNA INSTALLATIONS 20’ FEET AWAY FROM HOMES will be held on Wednesday, September 4th, 2024 at the Fountain Hills Town Hall commencing at 5:30 PM. It will be Agenda Item 9C Amending Chapter 17, Wireless Telecommunications Towers & Antennas.
After nearly 3 years of exhaustive research by residents, experts, and the FH Planning and Zoning Commission, in order to get this correct, the Dickey Regime is refusing to pass a 5G Ordinance to prevent 5G Antennas, from being installed 20′ feet away from homes! Instead, Dickey had town staff modify the wrong zoning chapter and is forcing a vote, on Sept 4th, 2024. Most emphatically these unnecessary, and mostly unwanted towers among other things:
That scratches the surface, www.FountainHillsSafeTech.com goes in depth, in simple language and chock full of easy to understand videos. Everyone except, of course, Coucilwoman Grzybowski, who was last heard from on this issue at the behest of Dickey uttering a profundity of incoherent falsehoods from the dais on this issue. As she leaves the council early, moving from FH, she'll most likely leave us with a yes vote to put one of these towers potentially in your front yard.
Dickey and her cohorts with the help of the town attorney have refused transparency to the residents and concealed information paid for with town funds (your money), from not only you but the town's Planning & Zoning Commissioners as well.
If you care about health, safety, and property value show up September 4th at Town Hall and be heard. Submit a speaker card for Agenda Item 9C and hand it to the town clerk before or during the meeting. Then, during the public hearing you will be allotted 3-minutes to speak, where you can ask council to send the ordinance modifications back to the planning commission and allow the commission access, to Campanelli’s Ordinance and Chapter 16 of the Municipal Code, so that 5G Small Cell Antennas, can be included in the amendments to the Wireless Telecommunication Ordinance in Chapter 17, of the planning code. If you can’t attend the meeting, you can still submit the comments above to the town, using the link here https://www.fountainhillsaz.gov/693/Public-Comment-Form
ALTERNATIVE: After the Town Council approved the rezone to allow high density apartments in the Target lot by a slim 4-3 vote on January 17, 2024, what made Reclaim Our Town decide to get involved in filing a referendum?
ROT: We believed that such an impactful and significant rezone should have voter input and that there were important questions that had not yet been answered. We believed this was a hasty vote considering that Planning & Zoning had voted against approval a few weeks prior. These concerns were validated at a later date when it was discovered Kalivianakis had indeed been receiving information from developers through her personal email, but had not disclosed this the night of the vote. A PAC was necessary to file a referendum. Since Larry Meyers and I were already part of an existing PAC, we filed as Reclaim Our Town due to the time constraints. There were only 30 days total allowed to fill out the necessary paperwork, produce the signature petitions, organize the circulation team, obtain the required minimum of 1084 signatures of registered Fountain Hills voters and file the referendum by February 16.
ALTERNATIVE: And why are you now choosing to provide this update to the Fountain Hills Alternative?
ROT: There has been ongoing “analysis” and misinformation put out by some using social media pages and letters to the editor (Times) dedicated to smearing us as individuals and as a PAC. For example, statements such as, “the court found that ROT’s claim that the Town Clerk provided Meyers with an erroneously numbered petition sheet was a complete fabrication.” And they put “complete fabrication” in quotes as though that was in the judgment. It was not. The court did not find it to be a fabrication. In fact the judge actually gave no basis for his ruling, but ruled in favor of the developer and Town, likely because the serial number was not provided on both sides of the petition. Another term they love to throw around is we engaged in “deliberate deception.” Also untrue. Their social media “analysis” consistently stated things as facts, when in reality they were simply the opposing positions from the attorneys representing the developers or Town.
ALTERNATIVE: On February 28, you apologized on social media to the over 1800 people of Fountain Hills who signed the referendum petition in an attempt to put this on the November ballot. How did that come about?
ROT: There was a Team of about 40 dedicated circulators who worked hard to obtain those signatures during a period of cold and inclement weather. 1084 signatures were the minimum that were required, but our Team collected well over that amount for both referendums 2024-01 (1800+) and 2024-02 (1300+) which essentially guaranteed that these would be on the ballot. So of course, when it looked like it was all for nothing due to being provided with the incorrect sample petition form from the very beginning, the disappointment was overwhelming. I felt the need to apologize to the people for not detecting the small pre printed number that existed on the notary backside of the petition. Filing the referendum was always about giving the residents of Fountain Hills a voice in this rezone. It was not a Crystal and Larry or Reclaim Our Town thing. It was for the People. And as I’ve stated many times, our position has never changed regarding the sequence of events. Unlike the Town who put out various versions initially. Not to mention, their campaign to encourage signature withdrawals during the final days before the petitions were filed (election interference).
ALTERNATIVE: Can you explain the timeline to help everyone understand the sequence of events?
ROT: Yes. From January 18, 2024 until the day the petitions were filed on February 16, 2024, it was a whirlwind of working against the clock. We chose to focus on 2024-01 for the referendum lawsuit which related to the 316 high density apartment rezone. When we were called liars for referring to “serial numbers” plural, we did indeed have multiple serial numbers. We just chose to focus on 2024-01 for the referendum due to time and money. The Town Council rezone vote for the Target lot occurred late into the evening on Wednesday, January 17, 2024. It was signed at 11:45 PM so we essentially lost another day for our 30 day referendum period. Thursday, January 18, Larry Meyers was provided with paperwork at the Town Hall, from the Town Clerk, to initiate the referendum process. No flash drive was provided containing forms. No emailed petition form. Friday, January 19, the Town Hall is closed. Saturday and Sunday as well. January 20 & 21, the correct verbiage for the forms was discussed and decided upon with the plan to turn in the application for serial numbers on Monday January 22. On Sunday, January 21, since Larry had been provided with actual paper copies of the forms, these were scanned into his computer so that the required verbiage could be typed onto the front pages of the petition forms and the application forms in the appropriate blank boxes. Monday, January 22, Larry was not able to take the application for serial number forms to the Town Hall due to assisting an elderly neighbor. Tuesday, January 23, Larry took the application for serial number forms to the Town Clerk and she assigned 2024-01 and 2024-02. Tuesday, January 23, Larry added the serial numbers to the fronts of each of the signature petition sheets that had already been scanned in his computer and partially completed; awaiting the serial numbers. Tuesday, January 23, signature petition forms were copied, attached to the associated ordinance paperwork and dispersed to the circulation Team members. Friday, February 16, all signature petition forms had been notarized, collected and then filed at the Town Hall. They were received by the Town Clerk, Town Manager, Executive Assistant and HR. They were time stamped on the backside notary page and a preliminary tally was made. Not one person indicated any problem with the back page. Fast forward to Saturday, February 24, when I saw a social media post from Beth Culp. She asked about the “rumor” about faulty petition sheets. Keep in mind, Reclaim Our Town, the actual people who filed the referendum, had not been notified of any problem whatsoever. I alerted Larry Meyers about this rumor post with a phone call on February 24. While on the phone with him, he carefully searched all emails and located an unopened email, buried amongst hundreds, where Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk, had indeed sent an additional signature petition form. The correct form. She sent it without any flags of high priority. Without any additional info in the subject line to draw attention to it (Ex. use this form instead of the one I gave you). And she sent it on the very day that Larry went to the Town Hall to submit the application forms to obtain the serial numbers on January 23. There was no mention she had sent this form. There was no question such as, “Did you get the form I sent today?” We had already received the signature petition form on January 18, the week before so there was no expectation that another would be sent. The petition form Larry had received previously from the Town Clerk had already been scanned and completed and just awaiting a serial number. This additional, important petition email was never sent to me who was usually copied on emails throughout the process. So in the “analysis” when they state that we received the correct form, but somehow chose to use the wrong form, you can see that Reclaim Our Town was unaware of that email until over a month after the hard copy was received and over a week after the petitions were actually filed. Reclaim Our Town was not notified by the Town Clerk that all signatures had been disqualified until February 28th.
ALTERNATIVE: So, is it offensive to you to hear accusations from a few attack dogs that you continue to repeat the “big lie” even after a final judgment has been entered?
ROT: It is absolutely offensive as well as ignorant. Just because a judge did not rule in our favor, does not mean that we automatically switch to a new version of events. We stated what happened and we have been steadfast in that sequence of events. We’ve always admitted that we did not detect the pre existing error on the back page. It was a very tiny number that could have easily been a form number, just as on the front side, lower left corner. We have not denied this was an oversight on our part. We completed the forms 100% correctly on the front, but we overlooked putting the assigned serial number on both the front and back. Since we had the incorrect form, there was no open box which would have reminded Larry to put the serial number in it. But more importantly, we did not put the small 2019 number on the backside either. It was pre existing and we did not recognize it as anything other than a form number. Other social media “analysis,” included the ridiculous suggestion that we could have used “white out” and put the correct serial number. That analysis misses the fact that we did not see the tiny number as an incorrect serial number that needed to be whited out. And we did not omit the serial number on purpose nor say, “there was no room for it,” and just decided not to put it there. It was an oversight because we did not have the correct form, and we were not aware that we did not have the correct form. So while some people like to play word games, we have maintained the same series of events all along. In addition, due to printer malfunction some of the petition forms contained 2019- while others contained 2019-01. So no, Larry did not apply incorrect numbers in two different ways. Another lie is to tie this number to 2019 Daybreak as to how we got this petition which is 100% incorrect. I never worked signature collection for Daybreak and I don't even think I signed a petition. I voted on the issue. Larry was not involved in Daybreak signature collection either, only signed a petition, and voted. Our attorney was involved in Daybreak, but we did not even meet him until March 2024, well after the referendum petitions were filed February 16. So this is a total red herring. I don’t know how that number got on the back side of a petition form that was provided by the Town Clerk, but we did not put it there or unfortunately recognize it shouldn’t be there. So that played a big part in us going forward with the lawsuit to try to fight for the People. In our opinion, getting the wrong form from the Town Hall should have been a consideration to allow an exception to the strict referendum rule of applying front and back serial numbers. Hopefully future legislation can address the redundancy of having a serial number on both the front and the back side of a single page petition.
ALTERNATIVE: Larry Meyers stated he went to the Town Hall to pick up the paperwork on January 18 and didn’t you receive a text from him that same day stating he had the paperwork and that he was coming by your house? Why then was he not seen on the Town’s surveillance video?
ROT: Yes I did receive that text, I have a copy of it and he did come by my house with paperwork. We have no answers for why he is not on the video. I never actually was able to open the video link that we were provided a day or two before the court date. The video was never in our possession so who knows what someone could have done to the video. It was not a smooth video to watch and jumped around a lot. With all the AI capabilities we have no clue what could have occurred with it. Some of us can erase objects or people from photos, so who knows. We won’t speculate further.
ALTERNATIVE: Can you explain the judgment Reclaim Our Town must pay?
ROT: We are responsible for the taxable expenses (Ex. Deposition Stenographer). We initially appealed because no one showed us any invoices from any paid expenses. And the judge did not tell them to show proof of those expenses to us, so once again he just ruled without explanation. No one has ever ruled that this was a “frivolous lawsuit” even though Councilwoman McMahon herself also incorrectly stated this from the dais on August 13. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfyNvb-sJhE) 9:13 on the video. The judge did not dismiss this case during the first hearing, but found that there was indeed cause to proceed. If it was frivolous then we would have been required to pay attorney fees also, which was not the case.
ALTERNATIVE: With regards to the resolution recommendation for the Town Council to vote “not to defend,” do you have any comment?
ROT: This has incorrectly been associated as some maneuver by Reclaim Our Town. According to the Council agenda, it was a member of the public who suggested that the Town step out of the lawsuit by choosing “not to defend.” Three council members saw the wisdom of that, but now are thrown under the bus by the same elements that criticize and oppose Reclaim Our Town. It had nothing to do with “not defending the Town Clerk,” as both the Chamber of Commerce and some members of the Council tried to spin. It was not illegal either for them to vote for the resolution according to our attorney. It was a way for the Town to get out from under the lawsuit, to keep counting the signatures in the best interest of the residents and to turn them over to the County. The developer was always going to keep fighting in the lawsuit. And since the Town essentially sat back and allowed the developer’s attorneys to run the show anyway during the lawsuit, why not just get out from under it at the developer’s expense.
ALTERNATIVE: You promised people you would clear up some of these issues once the lawsuit came to a close. The Town Clerk emailed the Mayor & Council in July stating that Reclaim Our Town had 30 days to file an appeal after that July 10 ruling. Did you consider filing an appeal?
ROT: The Town Clerk emailed the Mayor & Council in July stating that Reclaim Our Town had 30 days to file an appeal. Our attorney informed us this was incorrect. According to ARS section 19-121.03(B) it indicated an appeal must be filed within five calendar days. So once again, did the Town Clerk provide the wrong information just as she provided the wrong form to Larry Meyers, or when she used the incorrect Superior Court case number twice on an agenda? People make mistakes. We’ve said that all along. We knew we only had 5 days to decide about an appeal and whether it was affordable. We did have some cause to appeal and to be honest, I think there were many things left unsaid during our court case. Including addressing the Town Clerk incorrectly stating that the plan was for Larry to file an application for serial numbers on January 18, an impossibility. That of course was not correct considering the rezone had just occurred the night before on the 17th, he didn’t have the paperwork until the 18th, and we didn’t have the necessary information completed on the forms to even turn them in. We pursued the lawsuit initially to give the People a voice on the November ballot, but after further considerations, we decided not to file further appeals due to the time & expense of battling a developer with deeper pockets. This developer will most likely sell this land off to another developer now that the lawsuit is over. Hopefully the Town is done making further concessions for this project and keeps the best interest of the community at the forefront. Reclaim Our Town is sincerely sorry that this played out in this manner, but do not lose sight of the reason we even needed to pursue this referendum for the People. The 4-3, premature Town Council vote from Ginny Dickey, Sharron Gryzbowski, Peggy McMahon and Brenda Kalivianakis that favored the developer instead of the residents.
In an election year and headed for a Mayoral runoff against candidate and current Councilman Friedel, it appears as if town attorney Arnson has broken from his previous pattern in which any ethics complaint against the mayor or councilmember would go to an outside third party attorney for review and decision. This time he decided to just let Dickey off himself and withheld the decision until after the primary election. The Alternative steps into the way back machine, well, not that far back in a review of previous Arnson actions.
Arnson then searched out a completely inappropriate attorney from Casa Grande, Tina Vannucci. Specialty: real estate. Everything that followed seemed as though someone was telling Vannucci what the desired outcome should be:
Now it gets interesting. Skillicorn sues in Federal Court, Skillicorn v. Dickey, No. CV-24-01074-PHX-DWL.
"The complaint further alleges that Mayor Ginny Dickey, Town Council members Brenda Kalivianakis, Sharon Grzybowski, and Peggy McMahon, and private attorney Tina Vannucci (together, “Defendants”) "......https://casetext.com/case/skillicorn-v-dickey This is currently in Federal Court.
Since Vannucci is now a defendant, Arnson cannot send the Dickey complaint regarding using one pastor in town to silence another pastor whose message she disagreed with to Vannucci. Rather than use a shill real estate attorney who they canmanipulate into coming up with the findings that they wanted, Kalivianakis innocent, Skillicorn guilty, they have found an easier way to just make this go away. According to Arnson, he has the right to look at it first and determine if it’s even worthy of an ethics complaint. He has decided that this isn’t worthy. So now we have a town attorney whose job is tied to a mayor and council making a decision about the ethics complaint filed against the mayor, by 2 residents of the town. It must be hard to find a shill now that Vannucci is disqualified.
Does anyone not see that this stinks? Joe and Hunter Biden have Merrick Garland. Dickey and company have Aaron Arnson bringing the stink of corruption to the doorstep of Fountain Hills. Voters have a chance in November to clean house, local and beyond.
Tina Vannucci. Expertise : Real estate, business law, municipal law (employment, family leave, ADA)
The official vote tally paints a different picture than that painted by the Chamber of Commerce CEO and board. Gayle Earle, with the lowest "Chamber grade of C-" was the only council candidate to exceed the runoff threshold garnering 4,226 votes. No other candidate for council exceeded the required threshold of 4,216. Chamber "A+ rated" Art Tolis received the 2nd lowest total of all candidates receiving 2201 and failed to make the runoff. In a shock to everyone, especially McMahon herself, failing to get in with 4,170 votes (which is below the threshold). she now must run off against "B- rated" Rick Watts with the 3rd highest vote total of 3,715, "C+ rated" Mathew Corrigan with 3,574, and "A rated" Clayton Corey with 3,552. "C+ rated" Robert Wallace captured a meager 952 votes and "B+ rated" Henry Male received the third lowest total with 2,866.
The race for Mayor will also go to a runoff between the "C rated" Gerry Friedel receiving 4,061 and of course "A rated" Ginny Dickey capturing less than the required 50% + 1 with 4,507. Joe Arpaio brought up the rear with 1,527. It would appear that Arpaio kept Friedel from winning outright as those two competed for the same voters. The same can be said about Tolis votes in the council race for some council candidates.
With the passing of each election cycle and controversial issue coming before the town, it is becoming increasingly clear that the leadership of the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce is out of touch with the desires of most town residents. From failed school bonds due to fiscal irresponsibility to high density housing, they come down on the wrong side of most residents as reflected in vote totals. The Chamber fails in their main mission, COMMERCE, while meddling in elections and activism. All this while small business stagnates, promising companies leave, and no recruitment of corporate employers takes place.
The General Election is November 5th this year with early voting ballots mailed out in advance. Look for continued investigative reporting by The Alternative with two looming issues being looked into concerning Peggy McMahon and of course the currently stonewalled ethics complaint against Dickey for attempting to silence freedom of religious speech. Pressure will mount on town attorney Arnson to actually send this to a third party for review. It may be harder to find someone willing to roll over now that Vanucci, the town's "go-to" lawyer to dismiss charges against those they want to protect, and to uphold the charges against someone they want to find guilty, has been named in Councilman Skillicorn's Federal case.
Chamber grades wrong, 75% of the time
What does the election in FH actually come down to? Fiction, nonpartisan, we just love our town (feelings) progressives (Democrats) vs. truth/facts, conservatives, (Republican or republican leaning) voters. It's fairly simple, and the same can be said at the national level. We'll leave that for another discussion focusing on two aspects leading up to actually casting a ballot. Reading each campaign finance report and listening to what participants as well as their followers say when they think you are not paying attention. So without further ado, let's get started with the lineups:
MAYOR
COUNCIL
If you have yet to vote, consider the PAC reports and the message that they send along with the makeup of what others are saying. THEN VOTE.
Ginny Dickey, a career local politician, with accurate and properly filled out campaign finance reports dating way back. So what do they tell you? She receives and has always received a substantial portion of her contributions from PACs of service organizations of the town, liberal groups from as far away as Tucson, and unions. Her individual contributors are the usual Democrat suspects from town while she preaches nonpartisanship. You see their frequent letters in the Times wailing and railing against anything conservative and of course, their love for the town is so much greater than all others, while professing that if the rest of the residents would just shut up and let them handle things, everything would be a progressive utopia for all. Same Democrat message as the country in general.
Dickey's largest single individual contributor, Beth Culp, Treasurer of the Progressive PAC in town, not that there's anything wrong with that. As an individual, she's allowed to donate to whomever she chooses.
However, this woman does nothing but rail against the other local conservative PAC, as endorsing candidates she doesn't like. The Alternative searched websites, writings to the other publication, mailers , or signs mentioning any candidate by name and could find no ROT endorsements in 2024 . More on her in a moment and throughout this article.
Dickey's largest mailer, a who's who of leftist, progressive Democrats with flowering comments such as, "She is focused on us and our town. It's as simple as that."-Pam Cap. Who is us? Dickey failed to remove this woman from council chambers as she was screaming at councilman Skillicorn and dropping F-bombs as she was escorted out only after the town attorney threw her out. Dickey, focused on THEM.
Lastly, and certainly the cap heading into an election, Dickey contacted the liberal Methodist pastor and asked him to rein in a conservative pastor's sermons in an attempt to censor free speech and religion. Certainly an ethics violation as a few have been filed against her for this one. Even the Times had to report on this as painful as it must have been for them to write anything negative about the beloved Mayor Dickey. As an aside, maybe Dickey was just trying to please her supporters as none of them stand in respect for the invocation at council meetings. These same people appear on the mailer with Cap extolling nothing but flowery comments. Leftist, Democrats all. But this is a non-partisan town election they would have one believe.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
With an endorsement like this from the Treasurer of the HATE PAC, FLOURISH, this could be considered a major endorsement as a sanity vote for Friedel.
Gerry Friedel, a sitting councilman, with an accurate and properly filled out campaign finance report. One would expect nothing less from a retired financial industry career. The bulk of Friedel's contributors are individual residents of the town and plenty of them. One PAC contribution from realtors was probably because he has championed pro business sign regulations. Speaking of pro business, no one spends more money locally than Friedel. Business owners report that he and his wife eat and buy goods daily from FH businesses.
Friedel votes with residents nearly 100% of the time, spends countless hours accumulating data as research on issues and of course is conservative. That's why Beth Culp and the Flourish PAC rail against him and the Reclaim Our Town PAC. But, look very hard and you will not find any contribution from any officer of the Reclaim Our Town PAC, contrary to the misinformation that has been put about an endorsement.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
Once "America's Toughest Sheriff" and now a candidate for Mayor of FH. Certainly the most well funded of all candidates. A properly filled out campaign finance report that while hard to read individual names, does tell you that most of the money raised came from out of town and out of state contributors. That in itself is not bad as Joe has campaigned on bringing notoriety to FH because of his national persona. It's unclear whether he is fully up to speed on town issues as he rarely makes mention of it in his campaign as of this writing. Perhaps that is why local contributions are minimal. And, no contributions from any officer of Reclaim Our Town PAC.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
This gentleman is incapable of filling out a campaign finance report, even as simple as his is. He couldn't manage to put his PAC number on a single page of any report and as of this article has not filed the pre-election report that was due 7/20/2024. He also failed to provide any information on who his expenditures have been distributed to. Is he being fined the daily penalty by the town as required? This doesn't indicate anything nefarious, but it does seem like someone this financially sloppy shouldn't be helping to run the town. Tolis has one individual donor from FH and that's a resident named Jon Davies. Tolis was a strong supporter of the failed $25MM school bond ask as was Davies. Tolis votes against residents nearly 100% of the time as he has been on the wrong side of the vote on property tax, school bond taxes, Daybreak apartments, the Trevino Nursing home where the medical center currently exists, and who could forget the Crystal Lagoon.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
Following in the footsteps of Dickey, most of her money comes from special interest PACs, unions, with a smattering of out of town individuals. No doubt all rounded up by her single largest expenditure, Primary Consultants, our old friend Paul Ulan. Remember him? He raised all the money from contractors who stood to benefit from the contract work awarded by the school district in the failed 2022 school bond tax vote for the YES PAC.
https://fountainhillsalternative.com/school-news-1
And then there is that name again. Beth Culp, Treasurer of the leftist PAC in FH.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
No one ever heard from Mr. Male until, for the first time ever, he appeared at a council meeting in the runup to this election. He felt compelled to tell us "I'm an independent and am here to bring civility to our government." Since that moment he never misses an opportunity to tell us he's an independent. The old adage applies, "the more you have to tell something, the more one questions whether it's true." In a post on the left's hate page, "Outspoken Fountain Hills" the question was posed, "Any progressive candidates running for FH council?" Answer: "Peggy McMahon, Clayton Corey, and Henry Male"-Cindy Couture, the self proclaimed Democratic Socialist council candidate from 2022. (Alternative candidate profile 2022)
https://fountainhillsalternative.com/archives-1 Look up Democratic Socialist Party, You'll be surprised at what you find. Donna Male, Henry's wife, joined the "Outspoken" hate group early on, 12/5/2015 and proclaimed, "Yes I am a proud bleeding heart liberal." That's Henry's wife, not Henry. But he lives with this person. Given all the other comments from the group, if it smells like a fish, it usually is.
Here is another candidate having no attention to detail on the PAC report leaving one wondering if this is yet another person that shouldn't be running the town. Mr. Male fails to put his PAC number on a single page of his Q2 2024 report or his recently filed pre-election report.
And then there is that name again on the donor list. Beth Culp, Treasurer of the leftist PAC in FH, endorsing yet another leftist, progressive candidate.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
Mr. Corey does have correctly filled out campaign finance reports. They indicate not a lot of individual contributions from town. One notable leftist can be found
along with that name again. Beth Culp, Treasurer of the leftist PAC in FH, endorsing yet another leftist, progressive candidate.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
Ms. Earle has precisely filled out campaign finance reports indicating support from mostly small individual town contributors with a few larger donations from town residents. Another candidate supposedly having the Reclaim Our Town endorsement but no contributions from any member of the PAC are existing. Earle is a long time Fountain Hills small business owner which would seem advantageous to have on the town council since nearly all businesses in FH are small businesses.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
Mr. Watts has precisely filled out campaign finance reports that indicate modest support from residents of the town. One PAC contribution from the Scottsdale Realtors who probably took note of his thoughtful well researched work on the sign ordinance while on the Planning and Zoning Commission. If you are paying attention to work done by P&Z, Watts has delivered many well researched, carefully thought out recommendations on topics such as transitional housing (residential detox), commercial detox, 5G small cell broadband towers, high density housing, and more.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
Mr. Corrigan, a retired Fortune 500 executive has been seen at P&Z meetings for a few years now, presumably, to understand the issues and innerworkings of the town. Another candidate to receive a resounding endorsement of sanity from an original HATE PAC FLOURISH officer. Pam Cap. He did however omit his committee ID number on his finance reports. Financial details seemed to be accurately reported and show a modestly funded campaign from a small group of in town residents. The Alternative found no donations from Reclaim or their officers and thus not endorsed as reported by Beth Culp, Hate PAC Treasurer. The Alternative does not endorse candidates, but enthusiastically endorses sanity.
Read all campaign finance reports here:
Campaign Finance Reports | Fountain Hills, AZ - Official Website (fountainhillsaz.gov)
Flourish PAC established in 2/1/2024 with Pam Cap as Chair, and Beth Culp as Treasurer. 2/12/2024 it was amended to remove Cap and place Culp as Chair and Treasurer. It can be reasonably presumed that the bad publicity following the rage filled episode at a council meeting in which Cap was removed by the town attorney amid a downpour of F- Bombs forced this move. It is notable that Mayor Dickey did not stop this nor remove Cap, then gave her a quote on the back of a "Re-Elect Dickey" mailer, mentioned earlier in this article. Culp replaced Cap with herself on 2/12/24 until she realized a PAC needs two officers and the recruited Mike Geronimo to be the Chair on 2/29/24. A few donors above $100 most of which are members of the "Outspoken" hate group frequently mentioned in this reporting. Check the webpage and you will find absolute endorsements of all the progressives, Dickey, Corey, McMahon, and Male as is confirmed by Culp's personal donations to each and every one of them.
In the interest of full disclosure, this reporter refers to this PAC as the HATE PAC often in the article only because pouring through their publications, the bulk of material is hate of opposition rather than support of initiatives.
Reclaim Our Town, working for residents since 2022 has campaign finance reports that appear to have all the required data entered. Nearly 100% of the donors are local residents and cumulative contributions are substantial indicating broad support for positions which are clearly stated on the website home page and current campaign mailer. Generally statements appear to be fact rather than feelings.
Reclaim Our Town has no mention of any 2024 candidate's name in its mailers, signs, websites or postings. The Chair and Treasurer as individuals have not made any contributions to candidates in the 2024 election cycle, contrary to statements made and repeated often by Culp, Hate PAC Treasurer. Instead, "RECLAIM OUR TOWN ENDORSES CONSERVATIVE TOWN GOVERNMENT."
Reclaim states what the PAC has highlighted over the years and the Alternative found nothing vague about the issues supported.
As the ballots begin arriving it has become painfully obvious that FH is just a microcosm of the country in general. The left controls the main stream media and it parrots the talking points of the ideology. It tolerates the attack and demonization of the values residing on the right while completely censoring everything coming from the right. One can see it every week in the FH Times as editor, Ryan Winslett, allows baseless attacks against any individual on the right as well as any group from the same ideology such as PAC, Reclaim Our Town, and then refuses to print any letters with the opposite point of view declaring they have no basis in fact. The reporting goes that way as well.
Likewise, the FH Chamber of Commerce with it's CEO Betsy LaVoie made it painfully obvious that they too support the leftist agenda of Mayor Dickey and all those whom she would like on the council to institute a full blown takeover/ makeover of Fountain Hills with the same ideals of the Obama/Biden group. This CEO generally hides behind the board and it may require some healthy skepticism that the entire board supports the ineptitude of this organization. Commerce being the key word, nary a single major business having been brought to FH but allowing the only domestic time piece manufacturer in North America to leave for Mesa are the hallmarks of this group while they scream for more apartments (high density housing) as if that is commerce. We could go on, and it's all fact but this report isn't about the Chamber and its fearless leader, it's about what they are selling with their grade report on candidates which much like the rest of the "green baloney" (crediting Sheriff Joe with that), that they serve up. With the exception of one gentleman, Henry Male, we already know what these candidates stand for because they all have voting records in one form or another, so let's begin with the true retread.
Art Tolis - former councilman 2016-2020 - Chamber grade, A+ - Tolis voting record/support - hangs out at the Republican Club,
On and on for Art, the Avenue as Rodeo Drive is another beauty and of course he was a former Chamber board member which explains his A+ score. Plus of course, Tolis supports High Density Housing anywhere, everywhere, and never saw a development project he didn't like.
Clayton Corey - current P&Z commissioner - Chamber Grade A - Corey voting record on P&Z - Democrat
A nice enough man but clearly a Dickey plant on P&Z and a lapdog for the Mayor.
Peggy McMahon - current councilwoman - Chamber Grade A- - McMahon voting record/support - Democrat, Liberal Ladies
Henry Male - Unknown - Chamber Grade B+ - Self proclaimed independent
Ginny Dickey - Democrat - Chamber Grade A - Leader of all things Democrat in FH and beyond
As for the rest of the candidates, the Chamber grade is meaningless now that we know they are shilling for the left. But just to prove the point, here they are, we're guessing from their websites that these must be fiscally responsible, pro business, pro law enforcement, pro residents conservatives.
The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce hard at work promoting politics instead of businesses. Scratch your head and wonder why things are stagnant.
Former Councilman David Spelich first spoke to the Alternative in October of 2023 in the article below. Nine months later, and in another election season, one candidate for Mayor, Friedel continues to fight for the resident's money while the incumbent Mayor and councilwoman continue to spread misinformation and cover up the issue. Spelich goes on camera and on the record about the ongoing fight to recover millions of dollars in overcharges by the Penzone/Skinner run MCSO. See his comments here at the Alternative's YouTube channel. Stay informed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7OES4KGgVs&ab_channel=fhalternative007
Our Town, Fountain Hills, Arizona used to be a perfect little town, quietly nestled on the far eastern edge of the Valley away from the craziness of Phoenix and Scottsdale's frenetic pace. Early arrivals who were fortunate enough to get a piece of Fountain Hills built homes in the platted community, raised their children amongst the Town's natural beauty, mountains and desert environment. As the decades passed more homes were built, the demographics of new arrivals changed and with that little by little, Fountain Hills began to take on the look of the rest of the valley. Back then in Fountain Hills, you couldn't find a Democrat. Now, it's different. They are here, and their characteristics are no different than any of those seen at the national level; wasteful spending, social programs, diversity, equity, climate concerns, just name your cause.
The story really begins a decade ago when Ginny Dickey was on the council. Her pet project was to convert the town to a single hauler for trash collection, thus eliminating competition and lower prices for residents. ECON 101. The sales pitch was that there would be less trucks roaming the streets of FH if we only had one company and thus less wear and tear on Fountain Hills' deteriorating streets. As anyone can now see a decade later, Republic Services trucks are on the streets every day with the exception of the weekend and the streets are worse now than ever with tens of millions in backlog repairs.
And as a bonus to FH residents, twice a week pickup for $30 became once a week pickup for $50+ today.
So there is the history and now the present. Begin with March 3, 2024 and a campaign contribution to Peggy McMahon's council run from Republic Services (FH single hauler) of $1500. Then on March 26, 2024 Ginny Dickey gets a campaign contribution from Republic of $5000. Understand that the current contract is expiring January of 2026, right in the middle of the next Mayoral term.
The reason for the question mark after Dickey is conflicting reports. Anonymous sources told the Alternative she was in attendance, some staff couldn't remember, and an email generated seems to indicate she wasn't there but the email from Republic Services thanking everyone is addressed to all including Dickey. All these emails were obtained in a FOIA along with a request for the minutes of the meeting, but according to the town, there were no notes taken at the meeting, something which Espiritu usually does since it is her job.
What we don't know is what anonymous sources tell us was said in the secret meeting. The summary is as follows:
And of course as to the residents paying, "That will be fine"-McMahon. So McMahon and undoubtedly Dickey who is complicit are fine with the residents trash rates going up so they can institute their "Green New Scam" in FH at residents' expense. McMahon then compounds the issue with a lie in an April 8th email, "The fully integrated electric and recycle pickup trucks sound great because they will be less damaging to our streets and more environmentally friendly." The Alternative confirmed with Waste Management that these trucks weigh 5000 pounds more than a conventional hauler, are massively inefficient, and unreliable. In all of California, Waste Management has 3 units, that the state forced them to buy.
These two are running for Mayor and council again along with their progressive (democrat) friends Corey and Male. Be careful when you vote. Your wallet will undoubtedly get picked by this group as it is in their DNA.
The December 19th Council meeting had no agenda item regarding the Target Plaza rezone that was recommended for denial as proposed by Planning and Zoning a week earlier by a vote of 4-2. That didn't stop what appeared to be an organized effort to front run the January meeting where this may be heard. Chamber president and CEO Betsy LaVoie was huddled up with her minions before the meeting presumably going over their strategy and talking points.
After going through the Stellar Students Economic Development Director, Amanda Jacobs, presented her patented book report which was, as usual, devoid of any efforts to recruit any major employer anchor to Fountain Hills. It featured the usual small business service or retail but did pause to let everyone know that it would be impossible to have an amazon distribution center in the failing Target retail plaza but rest assured she has over 20 years of experience in the Bio Sciences area but that's a problem too as it would require rezoning to accommodate any company willing to relocate. The theme for the evening was established, rezoning for an anchor employer is difficult but rezoning to throw up apartments, no problem. Lots of statistics (more on that in the call to the public) showing there is no place to live in FH, no one can move here because we don't have enough apartments, all our apartments are full, we need more apartments was the mantra with the loudest voice from the dais being Mayor Dickey directing any anchor employer thoughts away and toward, you guessed it, apartments. That seemed extremely strange as she and her compatriots spent over a year blocking construction by Bart Shea and the additional phases of Park Place which is approximately 300 apartments downtown. This deserves its own in depth analysis that is sure to come in 2024.
Then after a section of her report on tourism in which a slide graphic of the Adero Resort with FH being depicted as being in the top 5 in AZ, Councilwoman Kalivianakis asked the director whether she had been in touch with the Adero people in reference to the receivership after payment defaults of the facility. Answer, she has not been in touch, knows nothing, and has nothing to report. And with that, it ended. Tourism, extremely important to FH, Adero, FH largest resort in receivership, and the town Economic Development Director has not been in touch, knows nothing, and has nothing to report. Maybe she has just been focusing too hard on building apartments at the Target Plaza to have heard.
Then the onslaught began with call to the public. First up:
And with that it ended. An hour of the same old tripe, the developer sales pitch repeated, with some facts (always characterized by the Chamber CEO as misinformation) and a touch of insanity by the resident Skillicorn haters.
Just as we sign off the air for 2023, the breaking news we find the AZ Auditor General has reported that FHUSD still has 15 uncorrected deficiencies, 10 partially corrected deficiencies, and 1 new deficiency. "The areas containing the most significant deficiencies are Cash and Revenues and Information Technology, leaving the district and student monies susceptible to loss, theft, and misuse and risking accuracy, reliability, and security of District data." The Auditor General report and district finance management was something that Bond opponents pointed out as a reason to reject the bond in November. Of course, then as now, that was a position opposite to Chamber CEO Betsy LaVoie who lapped up that sales pitch by the school superintendent and characterized all the real information as misinformation.
Welcome in 2024 with another sales pitch, this time the Target Plaza apartments, swallowed without question by the Chamber. Not to worry, any questions asked are just misinformation. The Chamber knows all, sees all, and to prove it to everyone, you can pay for the breakfast on January 4th and hear the sales pitch from the developer yourself. Don't expect any tough questions answered though, they ducked all the pertinent ones at P&Z. Happy New Year from the Alternative.
Stepping a little out of the direct news of the town but still staying in the realm of investigative journalism the Alternative is accustomed to delivering, we looked into where some of the towns money is going. Large sums or small sums, all sums add up and of course it is your money. This was an interesting small sum of money, MAG dues and contributions which total between $10K-20K per year. One of the "benefits" of being a member of MAG is that FH citizens are treated to regular updates on homelessness in the county from MAG experts. One of the benefits the FH citizens don't get is anyone coming to FH to pick up our homeless folks and taking them somewhere for rehabilitation and shelter. FH has received money from MAG to add a lane to Shea Blvd. from Technology to FH Blvd. Not sure there has ever been a traffic jam reported there but FH did receive money for that and the town has been promised MAG money for the repaving of Palisades over the next 20 years. Remember though, while it sounds free, in reality, it is some taxpayer's dollars, even some of yours. So it's not free, as nothing really is.
Now that the benefits portion of FH involvement in MAG has been established, on to the meat of our story. " The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) hosted a race-based training discussing the evils of whiteness, and how only white-skinned people can be racist." EVILS OF WHITENESS, ONLY WHITE-SKINNED PEOPLE CAN BE RACIST. The training was done by a company named "Racial Equity Partners" with its presenters being Donald Whitehead, Jr. (co-founder) and Mayté Antelo-Ovando . In case readers haven't guessed it, they are people of color and of course victims of the evil white man even though from their biographies they seem to be quite successful.
This group, and these presenters would provide the Alternative an opportunity to go on for thousands of words, tens of thousands as the nonsense goes on and on. So we're going to pull out just a few gems and provide the links for further reading.
The real reason for this report, is do FH residents really want to send our towns money to pay for such drivel? Remember when Grady Miller, probably at the direction of Mayor Dickey, approved a $10K contract with Social Prosperity Partners to "facilitate" the FH Council retreat just this past February? The current council majority found out about it and it was cancelled but of course the contract had a no cancel clause in it and the $10K was gone, wasted. The social justice, equity, and basically the "RACE/VICTIM" industry is thriving in America. Big business, but it's really not new. The Reverends Sharpton and Jackson have been at it for decades but now others are catching on and who might the main customers be? Of course, government and other taxpayer funded organizations, woke corporate boardrooms and the like. It's a hustle, shakedown as it were. It would appear that to sum up the message in a few words, success does not arise from hard work, and those that did work hard to achieve success, owe it to those who don't.
This messaging is a plague in America as has been said, but bringing this all back to local, according to the 2022 census, 92.6% of the population of Fountain Hills is white. This reporter is certain that they and the other 7.4% are hard working (or retired formally hard working), successful residents.....and not racist. That being said, the residents and taxpayers of FH continue to send money to MAG, an organization who hires people to lecture and train them on how we, in Fountain Hills, are all racist. That would appear to be completely insane but we here at the Alternative are standing by to now be called racist by the true "gaslighters" out there for pointing this out.
If you want to read more on this subject follow the links but beware, the more you read, the angrier you may get.
Unless you were paying attention to the local, state, and yes the national news, FH residents would never know of this crazy detox development as the story was completely ignored by the FH local paper. Crickets. Probably because this story sheds a true light on the inept mayor and her Democrat compatriots. Even the left wing rag, AZ Republic, had to report it.
The town narrowly escaped total disgrace as the FBI and the State of AZ, in an ongoing investigation have uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in ACCHS fraud and human trafficking of Native Americans in this industry. Multiple parties of the hundreds caught up in the investigation were all set to open up shop here in FH, smack dab between two Native American communities.
The Back Story:
Dragging their feet for years trying to prevent ordinances protecting the residents of FH from the detox industry, was a short list of the malcontents opposing the citizenry.
Just as FH finally passed it's commercial detox ordinance on 2/21/2023, directed by patriots Friedel, newly elected Kalivianakis, Toth and Skillicorn, restricting the industry to locations least likely to impact residents, something strange occurred. This came against the wishes of the Mayor and her followers along with the town attorney. Resident watchdogs, became aware through a tip that Angel Heart Health Services, LLC https://npino.com/behavioral-health/1326653312-angel-heart-health-services-llc/ had purchased 16927 E. Saguaro (behind Denny's) for $2MM fully intending to open an outpatient treatment center disguised as behavioral health counselling as the remodeling had already begun. The sale of the property zoned C-O, commercial office, the lightest commercial zoning in FH was not eligible for behavioral health uses. The transaction had actually closed on 11/1/22.
A group of residents dedicated to preserving the character of FH began to investigate immediately. Over time they have become perhaps the preeminent investigators of the detox industry in the state, certainly a thorn in the side of Dickey, McMahon and company that want this industry in FH, and turned up a massive amount of information in a short period of time, including, among other things, Angel Heart's open 7 state citations along with all the proof the town needed to deny the issuance of a business license to operate this business at that location. The Alternative received a copy and was told this information was turned over to the Town Services Director, John Wesley, and within a week, miraculously, Angel Heart corrected all 7 citations. Curious that this would happen, and an indication that FH intended to issue a license in violation of their own ordinances?
All this was occurring during March of 2023 in the closing days of Town Manager Grady Miller, who also had presided over the years of foot dragging on this issue. Did he direct John Wesley to issue the license at the request of the Mayor? We'll probably never know as he "retired" officially 3/31/23 giving way to the new town manager, Rachael Goodwin. After a pathetic display at Call to the Public during the April 4th council meeting by the realtor who sold the property to Angel Heart, in which he drug 5 "adopted" children in front of everyone to make an impassioned plea for the business license. It was eventually denied, as it should have been instantaneously and without fanfare or an uprising by residents.
So what is so strange about this? One is an isolated instance. Two is a trend. On 3/9/23 Parcel No. 1, Lot1, of Redrock Business Center and Parcel No. 2, Lot 5, of Redrock Business Center Three, 17100 E. Shea Blvd. was purchased by Imani Wellness LLC. Imani Mental Health Services – We care (imanimhservices.com) from Arizona Holdings VIII, LLC. Maricopa County Assessors office lists the sale date of the properties as 1/1/2023 for $2.2MM but the Maricopa County Recorder has paperwork signed by Barjinda Whala, a principal of the seller with a 3/9/2023 date. This information came to the same citizen watchdog group as a tip. This center is zoned C-1 and not available to behavioral health uses so the group reported the land purchase to the town staff and that's really where the story gets interesting. Continued......
The story broke on 5/16/2023 but it is unknown how long ago the investigation began and how long the ongoing investigation will continue. Two of the businesses currently with the state payments suspended fully intended to operate here in FH. In all fairness, some of the hundreds on the list are TERMINATED, while these two are SUSPENDED. The Alternative will continue to monitor this situation.
Our readers can google Arizona AHCCS fraud and it will come up everywhere. Here is a link to local Fox 10 which is an excellent, in depth report. https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-cracks-down-on-medicaid-sober-living-home-fraud-targeting-native-americans-this-is-tragic
Two of the players are part of the list:
Angel Heart as mentioned and Imani Wellness both purchased multiple buildings in the front part of FH . Angel Heart, owned by Johnny and Latasha Hangston, for their part was only only targeted as a business, Imani Wellness, LLC and Imani Mental Health Services owned by Joanne and Zac Rop were targeted as businesses and individuals.
The short version of the story is companies and individuals from the detox industry were scamming the Arizona taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars, and upwards, collecting payments from ACCHS claiming to help addicted Native Americans when actually supporting their habits and in some cases KILLING them. Further, they were actually collecting Native Americans from their communities which makes this a scheme of human trafficking and healthcare fraud.
"I believe the state of Arizona owes our tribal nations an apology," says AG Kris Mayes. "I don’t think it is too much to say that this is one of the biggest scandals in the history of the state of Arizona when it comes to our government. Our office estimates that is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, it could go higher."
Now the Alternative has not uncovered any definitive information as of this report, but this reporter didn't fall off the proverbial turnip wagon yesterday. 17100 E. Shea Blvd and 16927 E. Saguaro Blvd with easy access to SR87, smack dab between two different tribal nations sounds a bit like LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.
Wrapping up the "bringing disgrace to Fountain Hills" aspect, does anyone remember the AZ Republic story back in August of 2022 about the PAC, Reclaim Our Town (ROT) bringing disgrace to the FH elections while overturning the Democrat majority on the town council? How about the woman, Dianne Price, who read parts of the absurd article in a call to public? And who got the Republic to even notice FH enough to write the article? Let's talk about the disgrace this story could have been without a new majority protecting residents from the detox industry. Perhaps those supporting Reclaim Our Town are not the disgraceful ones but are saving the town from being disgraced by those criticizing them. Let the readers think about that as a Democrat governor and attorney general admit to this dark day in Arizona history and the fact that Fountain Hills could have had these facilities operating right here, smack dab in the middle of 2 Native Nations.
This story is ongoing and the Alternative will be following it closely especially since the other publication won't.
Read on for a brief history of the DETOX ASSAULT on FH, who supports residents, and who doesn't in town government.
In November of 2020 something strange began to happen in the beautiful and peaceful Town of Fountain Hills. Investors began buying up large houses and renting them to addiction recovery businesses. Read about it under the "More" tab, archives drop down .
This was a story that this publication followed at its inception. Nothing neighborly about it, no regard for the neighborhood, pure greed under the guise of helping those of misfortune. The realtors began sucking in out of state buyers (LLC's) at inflated prices while lining their pockets with bloated commissions. The detox businesses convening investor gatherings promising inflated rents because they could afford anything when charging upwards of $20K/month/patient and putting 10-20 people in a house. Of course these were called "sober homes" so they could hide behind the "Obama Care" ADA classification of addicted people as a protected class, "disabled". In reality they were OTC's, outpatient treatment centers as the residents were all being giving drugs to wean them off of whatever they were addicted to. It was all great except if you had one in your neighborhood and your property value, safety, and peace of mind all went down as is the case.
After 15 months of trying to leave FH residents completely unprotected from, and at the mercy of this vial industry, the council succumbed to overwhelming pressure from not only residents near these places, but almost everyone, knowing they could too be victimized. And remember also, this is just the residential portion of the industry. Work still needed to be done to minimize the effects of the worst part, inpatient and outpatient commercial facilities, the feeder system for the houses. Let's look back at what your representatives had to say and what they ultimately did.
Councilman Spelich, the protector. Having spent his whole life in law enforcement, "to serve and protect", of course was in favor of the ordinance as written by P&Z but had to vote "Y ES " for the stripped down version just to get something. He was marginalized by the circus his entire term.
Councilman Friedel, the thoughtful. Always analytical, certainly logical stood with Spelich but in the end, as a fellow marginalized member, voted "YES " for the stripped down version just to get something. Remember that when voting for Mayor next year as he has announced his candidacy.
The Mayor, ever the politician. She drug her feet in trying to do nothing until, you guessed it, an election cycle rolled around and she knew she had to give the residents something in order to be reelected. So she voted "YES " for the ordinance, but for removing all the enforcement provisions.
Councilwoman McMahon, the virtue signaler. Voted "YES " reluctantly after a long diatribe of the town needs these services that help our residents and these are just poor unfortunate people who need our help. One problem, no one in these facilities is from FH and why would they seek treatment in the same location as caused their problem?
Councilwoman Grzybowski, the dumb. A businesswoman herself, proclaiming that this business didn't need any business insurance and that the town could not force them to have it and no one could inspect the facilities to ensure compliance. Brilliant. And thus the ordinance was gutted but got her "YES " vote.
Councilman Magazine, the deaf. A three-time ethics violator voted "YES " to go along with the trio, but was caught on an open mic saying, "I can't sit by and listen to these people anymore." Let's just leave it at that.
Councilman Scharnow, the grifter. What better way to wrap up this important vote than with a "NO" vote from this man. He took a perfectly honorable endeavor of running the youth drug coalition, a prevention activity, and conflated it with neighborhood facilities for rehabilitation of addicts. Absurd. He fought any measure at all and advocated that having 10 addicts in a single residence would receive the same care as 5. Even though he is no longer on the council, you can still read his out of touch opinions in print from time to time.
At the center of this misguided process was the advice from the town attorney, who, through the entire process, proclaimed that the town could do nothing and would be sued. He even brought in an "expert" from his law firm to tell us everything we could not do. Of course, neither bothered to research all the circuit court rulings as some diligent residents had done, as well as P&Z. As a side note, he remains as town attorney to this day.
Once again, collectively, the most intelligent organization in the Town of Fountain Hills, Planning & Zoning, writes a comprehensive commercial zoning ordinance confining the detox industry to the least offensive, most protective of residents, area of town. Some say it took them that long because of its comprehensive nature, some say they bided their time in anticipation of some measure of intelligence to return to the Town Council via the seating of a new majority.
Of course those on the left choose to blame the evil ROT group, sowing divisiveness within the community, by helping to change the makeup of the council. Facts show that voters made this decision while the left wails on as usual with discord. Friedel rising from the ashes of the marginalized, adding new friends with a sense of intelligence, a lot of ears listening to the residents, and definitely not a left wing agenda for FH, went to work.
The three newly marginalized tried to strip the ordinance of all the important provisions. It was obvious they had been coached by the town attorney. All the usual fear of repercussions injected into the discussion. We even heard from the attorney for the detox company operating in town with some obligatory threats.
But in the end, the vote, 5 for the P&Z version, 2 against. Guess who? Councilwoman "we need these services in town", McMahon, and Mayor, " I' d also like to point out that while I know that it seems like it' s been going on a long time, this is the first time this council or any council has seen this item", Dickey. Where have you been for the last 2 years? We surmise perhaps cutting ribbons, but definitely not listening to residents.
But wait, where did that 5th vote for come from? Who took over Grzybowski' s brain? She was the front person for the gutting but voted with the majority. The residents would like to thank whoever was responsible for the successful brain transplant and hope the organ is not rejected by the patient in the future.
Not a moment too soon to save the town from total disgrace at the hands of the left.
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