Carefree Resort & Villas
I read with interest the Letter to the Editor published in Sonoran News recently regarding the new management team at the Carefree Resort & Villas and the Resort’s 2009 New Year’s Eve Gala. As a new member of the Carefree community, and a business owner representing The Carefree Resort, I certainly respect a person’s right to express their own opinions. I have enjoyed both sides of the writer’s pen and take seriously the good or bad commentary about the properties I manage, and the communities I serve. I welcome all perspectives about the decisions I make and the actions I take, but in this case, I take exception to the allegations outlined in the recent Your View editorial.
In November our firm came to Carefree to begin operating the Carefree Resort & Villas.
This property has a rich and storied history in the Carefree community. From being closed for years, suffering through endless litigation and finally succumbing to a bankruptcy which resulted in its ultimate sale, the resort has seen more than its fair share of tough times.
Despite all of this we saw the future of the Carefree Resort & Villas as one full of promise, promise for the Carefree and Cave Creek communities as well as for the owners we represent. We have made the tough staffing, budgeting and operating decisions required to bring financial security and operational excellence to the Resort.
Our goal is to restore the Carefree Resort & Villas to being a viable business and contributor to the community.
The New Year’s Eve event at Carefree has become a tradition at the Resort, and the 2009 event was a huge success. I attended the New Year’s Eve event and helped play host to a number of local property owners, 130 guests that drove from Sacramento, California by bus to visit not only our resort but the local community, and many other local, hospitality, community and elected VIP’s and their guests. Since we were proud of my company’s new relationship with the property, John Schilling, the Resort’s new General Manager, and I were both joined by our families. At midnight the balloons dropped and the dance floor was full of many happy couples celebrating the start of 2010! At midnight both John and I hugged our mothers. It was a great moment for all of our guests and a proud moment for us.
The allegations of what happened at the New Year’s Gala are not true. More importantly, and personally more disturbing to me, are the allegations that the community has not supported The Carefree Resort. The support from business leaders, elected officials, property owners and individuals since our arrival has been overwhelming. I find the community to be very open to change, welcoming to the Resort’s new business owners, and being dedicated to help bring visitors to Carefree and Cave Creek.
The new ownership of the Resort is committed to being good citizens and neighbors to all of Carefree and Cave Creek. They are committed to the new management, supportive of all our efforts and initiatives to revitalize the property, and dedicated to working tirelessly with management and the community to be successful. These words come with more than just respect for a rich history and praise for a community. They come with the promise of a substantial capital investment in the Resort. This commitment will bring renovation and restoration dollars into the Carefree economy. We clearly understand that The Carefree Resort is one of the largest contributors to the city’s tax base. We take seriously the shared dedication that our success is closely tied to the success of all businesses in the Carefree area. You can call this a Promise, you can call this a Practice, or you can call it a Parade!
This Promise to rebuilding excellence is the “Parade” we are bringing to Carefree, and I am very proud to be a part of it. We can only hope that the author of last week’s commentary and all the stakeholders of Carefree and Cave Creek join us as we work to rebuild a great Resort and become champions of a great community.
I invite anyone who is curious about the changes going on at the Carefree Resort to visit us, meet our management team, see first hand the renovations taking place and embrace change as it is vital to all of us.
Edwin W. Leslie | CHA President & CEO Bridlie Hospitality Management, Inc. | Carefree Resort & Villas | Carefree, Arizona
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Letter to the Editor from Mayor Schwan
As the saying goes, we’re all entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own version of the facts.
Unfortunately Sonoran News continues its longstanding tradition of selective, subjective and substantially inaccurate reporting on our wonderful town of Carefree. Mr. Don Sorchych, Publisher of Sonoran News, has a right to the full First Amendment protections of the U.S. Constitution. This means he can mix opinion and fact into a frothy mixture of fantasy and free-wheeling commentary.
But he has no right to make up his own truth.
As an elected official I am a public figure. This puts me at a disadvantage. He can say anything he wants without fear of losing a libel or slander lawsuit, even if he is sloppy or unwilling to check his facts.
Recently Mr. Sorchych chose to aim his reckless fire at me. Last May I was duly re-elected to the Carefree Town Council, and my fellow council members chose me to serve as mayor. Since I am not willing to be Mr. Sorchych’s lapdog, he supports a recall effort against me. There are no credible allegations or wrongdoing. I simply have chosen to represent the voters, not Mr. Sorchych and his cronies.
Let’s discuss some facts.
The Jan. 20, 2010, edition of Sonoran News contains an article headlined, “Carefree Councilmen Openly Back John Traynor in Recall Election.”
The article states – falsely – that I directed a $7,305.09 payment to the Foothills Caring Corps while I was a member of the Foothills Caring Corps board of directors, and this payment represents “a conflict of interest.”
First, this was a routine payment, established under routine town procedures, for transportation services provided by a non-profit organization. As mayor it is my routine obligation to sign all checks drawn up by town staff. Town council members were informed of this grant on Sept. 21, 2009.
Second – and this is a crucial point – I was not a member of the Foothills Caring Corps board when this check was issued. This is a matter of public record. My resignation letter from the board was submitted on May 26, 2009, fully six months before any payment was rendered. As I stated in that letter, I was resigning to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. Despite my diligent efforts to avoid baseless allegations, Sonoran News chose to print something that is provably false. The two council members who made this allegation should know I resigned from the Caring Corps Board, and certainly any reputable news source would have checked with the Foothills Caring Corps before printing such a scurrilous allegation.
Third, the article alleges that this payment violated a town council decision “to suspend all charitable donations for the year” in view of the town’s fiscal situation. In fact, this was not a simple act of charity. This involved state-authorized Local Transportation Assistance Funding II (LTAF II). This is a fund that directs money from the state Powerball Lottery to use for public transit – and only public transit.
The payment in question to Foothills Caring Corps was to be used to provide public transit service to members of the Carefree community. This is not a charitable contribution. Further, if the money was not used for this specific purpose, Carefree would be forced to give this money back to the state, and the people who rely on this transit service would have been stranded.
Most of us who read Sonoran News are well aware of specific instances in which the publication gets its facts wrong. Unfortunately, unless someone stands up and calls attention to their inaccuracies, too many people will assume the article is accurate.
In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote that “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
But Jefferson was also a courageous political figure who never hesitated to fight back when a publication misrepresented the truth. It is on this basis I stand up and call your attention to the repeated factual errors of Sonoran News.
David Schwan | Mayor of Carefree
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What the Carefree election is not about
In an effort to confuse voters, with the hope that it will inure to the benefit of their candidate, the supporters of David Schwan are trying to make the March election in Carefree several things that it is not. It is time to address these specious arguments and present them for the red herrings that they truly are.
First is the attempt to make people believe that the election is about the election of a new mayor. Nothing could be further from the truth. David Schwan is a councilmember and he has been recalled as a councilmember. The election is simply about whether he will continue to serve as a councilmember.
The choice in this election is not about whether Mr. Schwan or John Traynor will be the mayor. Mr. Traynor is not running for mayor; he is running for a seat on the council, just as Mr. Schwan is running to retain his seat on the council. If Mr. Traynor should win the election, then the council, with Mr. Traynor but without Mr. Schwan, will pick a mayor from among its seven members. Any effort to make people believe that this is a mayoral election is blatantly untrue and should be disregarded as cheap and misleading politics.
The second specious argument is that this election is an attempt to overturn a fair and honest election that occurred last year. This argument ignores the sorry history of the 2009 council election in which, through the machinations of the people holding power in Carefree, the voters were almost denied any choice in the election at all. When the three incumbents, including the then mayor and vice-mayor, withdrew from the race after faring so poorly in the primary, the voters were left with only four people running for four spots. How fair, honest and aboveboard is that?
Fortunately, two men did step forward to offer alternatives, but both had to do so through write-in campaigns. As everyone knows, write-in campaigns are very difficult to win and it is a reflection on just how dishonest the election was, and how angry the voters were as a result of the incumbents’ gamesmanship, that the two write-in candidates did so well. No, thanks to the quitters who walked away in the middle of the campaign, the 2009 election was not a fair one. The playing field was never level. This time, however, both candidates are on the ballot and a truly fair and honest election is before us.
The third piece of nonsense being tossed at the voters, continuously repeated by Mr. Schwan’s supporters, is that this election is an abuse of the recall process. They argue that recalls are only authorized when an office holder violates the law or engages in abuses of his or her power. This contention is also blatantly false.
Under the Arizona Constitution, an elected official can be recalled for any reason imaginable under the sun. That is the law; that is the right of the people. The people who pursued the successful recall of Mr. Schwan were doing no more than the law and constitution of Arizona expressly allow them to do. Instead of respecting the exercise of these constitutional rights, as we all should even if we disagree with the substance, Mr. Schwan’s supporters berate citizens for doing exactly what the law authorizes them to do.
Still, disrespect for the law does not seem to bother Mr. Schwan and his supporters. Even if one adopts their misguided view of when a recall is appropriate, few can doubt that Mr. Schwan’s actions during the past several weeks satisfy even the higher threshold articulated by them of violation of law and/or an abuse of power. His political mailing at taxpayer expense that greeted us in our water bills is one example of an abuse of power and probable violation of state law. His unilateral decision to spend $7,000 of unbudgeted money violated state law and the Town’s own prohibition against spending more than $4,000 without council consent. It also violated the policy decision made by the council as a whole during the budget process not to provide any money to non-profit entities this fiscal year.
Thus, even his supporter must now admit that Mr. Schwan is a proper subject for recall and should be removed from office.
Tom Rawles | Carefree
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Obama eligibility: Does two million dollars make him eligible
It has been a full year since our president was inaugurated twice by Chief Justice Roberts and congratulated by Speaker Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid. It has been much more than a year since the DNC certified Obama as being eligible to hold the office of president of the United States. The Congress based Obama's eligibility on the certification received from the DNC and the Illinois Secretary of State, based upon the Hawaiian Birth Certificate, a document that has been propped up firmly against accusations that it was photo shopped and is not a representation of the actual vault copy kept in a Honolulu vault.
Unfortunately, the Hawaiian certificate was photo-processed in some manner, by Adobe Photoshop, as evidenced by the EXIM data associated with the online file. More bothersome than arguing over a file's validity is the fact that Obama has spent over 2-million dollars in campaign funds to quash any subpoena or stop any legal action whose intent it is to evaluate the vault copy of his original birth certificate.
Why would a president of the United States spend two million dollars to stop attempts to reveal that he is a native born American citizen? If we find out that he is not an American citizen, or that he is not native born, the jig will be up for him and those who potentially committed treason around him. The Constitution means something, whether the left wing wants to accept it or not. If Obama was born in Kenya, every piece of presidential paper that Obama ever signed will be negated, any bill he signed, negated, any benefits to people-in-need, foreign or domestic, negated, and yes, even his double inauguration, negated. Why has the mainstream media ignored this ongoing campaign expenditure? What do these law firms have to say for themselves? Why has Congress ... our mighty Congress ... the esteemed legislative body of our history books ... ignored this 2-million dollar impropriety?
If Obama was a Republican, you can bet your life there would be a Congressional investigation. And you can bet your bottom dollar that one day, we will know whether Obama was truly president or not.
Joe Guida | E-mail
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Writing assignment
Amanda Lee is a Language Arts teacher at Timberland Charter Academy in Muskegon, Michigan. Her assignment for her 7th and 8th grade students was to choose a newspaper from anywhere in the U.S. and write a letter describing the assignment and ask the readers to respond. Ms. Lee’s goal is to have as many responses as possible from people across the country.
Since 7th graders are unlikely to grasp the concept of newspaper distribution, whether you live in Scottsdale or Phoenix or Carefree or anywhere in the nation as you read this online, please feel welcome to write back to Tamera directly: Timberland Charter Academy, C/O Mrs. Lee’s Language Arts Class, 2574 McLaughlin Road, Muskegon, MI 49442.
Dear Sir or Madam:
My name is Tamera. I am a student at Timberland Charter Academy in Muskegon, Michigan. I am 14 years old and in the 7th grade. I have a lot of hobbies that include drawing, reading, writing, hanging out with friends, listening to music and singing.
I am writing because I have a class assignment in which I write a letter to a newspaper of my choice. I have chosen to write to you because my favorite author, Stephanie Meyer, lives in Cave Creek, Ariz. I am very interested in learning more about your town and Ms. Meyer. If you could, would you please publish this letter in one of your columns? I am hoping the residents of your town will respond to my letter and write back. I am very interested in hearing back from the people there.
I would like to thank you for reading my letter. I would like to ask a few questions. What are some fun activities you do during the holidays? What kind of jobs can be found there? I am really looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Tamera
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Why I haven’t watched a SOTU address in 20 years
It’s embarrassing to admit this, but the reason I haven’t watched a State of the Union address in 20 years is that I’m a slow learner. If I had been a fast learner, I would have had my epiphany and stopped watching long before 20 years ago.
The delayed epiphany was this: that the SOTU is a charade put on by both political parties and the players in the audience, including members of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, the head of the Federal Reserve, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. All of them know that the SOTU and other solemn performances throughout the year are designed to distract citizens and media from the ugly truth.
The ugly truth is that the federal government is insolvent, meaning that it can’t pay all of its debts, obligations, and promises. And it is insolvent because it is deceitful, dishonest, and corrupt. Everyone in the SOTU audience is guilty of a massive fraud. Instead of wearing expensive suits in a marble room, they should be wearing striped uniforms in a federal cell of bare concrete.
Their crimes are many. Let’s look at the four most serious ones.
First, the official accounting books of the United States are cooked. The government’s own auditor, the General Accounting Administration, has said so, but in nicer words. Among other cooking, the books don’t account for all of the government’s liabilities. A full accounting would show that the government’s true indebtedness is nearly $100 trillion.
Second, the miscreants know that there is no money in the Social Security Trust Fund. They have been robbing the fund to pay their salaries, their marble offices, their large staffs, and their jaunts around the world on military airplanes.
Third, they know that the Capitol Mall is a Potemkin village of monuments, museums, reflecting pools, and other tourist attractions. Behind the façades are huge, out-of-control, unaccountable bureaucracies, staffed with minions who, on average, are paid twice as much as the average American worker in the private sector.
If Americans wanted a real education about the workings of their government, they wouldn’t come to Washington and visit the Smithsonian. They’d demand a tour of the Department of Agriculture, which is housed in a granite building a rotten tomato’s throw from the Mall.
Three stories high, two blocks wide, and three blocks long, it is the most visible example of all that is wrong in Washington. Does anyone really believe that farmers wouldn’t grow crops, food companies wouldn’t process the crops, and supermarkets wouldn’t sell groceries if the building were to be razed and the employees had to find real work?
Fourth, the biggest crime of all takes place at the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve. In a complicated shell game that the average citizen doesn’t understand, money is created out of thin air in these houses of ill-repute. Or to be more accurate, the fiat money of the national government is debauched in a sordid ménage a trois for the benefit of the johns in the White House and Congress and their banker friends. In a very real sense, the johns are covering up their corruption with Monopoly money.
Since 1913, when the Federal Reserve was created, the purchasing power of the dollar has fallen by over 95 percent. When FDR abandoned the gold standard, the debauchment turned into a screw-the-public orgy that would make Tiger Woods envious. Later, all remaining spending restraint was removed when Nixon closed the gold window to foreign governments.
Unless the four crimes are soon stopped and punished, the U.S. will end up as just another country in a long line of countries that spent themselves to death with phony money.
I didn’t watch the SOTU charade last night, but I know that President Obama didn’t talk about any of these crimes. That’s because he is a criminal like everyone else who was there.
Craig J. Cantoni | Scottsdale
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Please ...
http://kingsforum.250free.com
We are so f*ckin sick and dammit assed tired of hearing the word – REPUBLICAN – we're just about ready to eat off all our toenails!!!
The REPUBLICANS have shown for decades that common U.S. citizens have NO VALUE to them AT ALL !!! We're Independent, we don't have any particular love for any political party ... but if you are in love with REPUBLICANS this is not going to be a reason for us to hate you. We are all suffering the same suffering. If you desire to have republicans, all we ask is – GET SOME DIFFERENT ONES. Get rid of these guys ... please!!!
Clean Congress – Repell the Illegal Invasion.
Any questions?
M.E. Goodwin | Los Angeles, California
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