BY LINDA BENTLEY  |  DECEMBER 10, 2014

Clancy poised to challenge Trenk in recall

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susan clancyCAVE CREEK – As of the publication of this edition, Susan Clancy (r) is the only person so far to have requested a candidate packet and is collecting petition signatures to run against Vice Mayor Adam Trenk.

Clancy, who has served on the Cave Creek Unified School District governing board through several administrations, was removed from the ballot earlier this year when Trenk filed a lawsuit challenging her signatures. Clancy came up three valid signatures short.

Clancy, a long-term Cave Creek resident, has also been involved with Kiwanis Club, Soroptimist and other local organizations.

Following a court challenge brought by Rob Papineau, Trenk was allowed by the court to remain on the ballot during the last council election, despite not being a resident of Cave Creek for one year immediately prior to the election, only because he intended to move to Cave Creek.

Clancy is the chair of Cave Creek Caring Citizens (CCCC), the political action committee that successfully collected enough valid signatures to force a recall election against Trenk and his fellow slate councilmen, Mike Durkin, Reg Monachino and Charles Spitzer.

It took CCCC two attempts to recall Trenk, Durkin, Monachino and Spitzer because Trenk sued to have pages of petition signature sheets disqualified for technical reasons.

The PAC was successful in its second attempt and received no legal challenges.

Trenk signed his own recall petition with the late actor James Gandolfini’s name and a non-existent address on Yucca Drive.

Signing someone else’s name to a recall petition is a criminal offense.

Trenk led the effort to terminate former Town Manager Usama Abujbarah, as the newly seated council’s first order of business, and convinced the council to hire his friend Rodney Glassman, who had no management experience, as interim town manager.

Trenk was joined by Durkin, Monachino and Spitzer in firing Abujbarah and hiring Glassman in what, from reading court documents, may have been in violation of Arizona’s open meeting law.

Termination of Abujbarah resulted in a lawsuit, exposing the town to potential liabilities in excess of $3 million, not to mention the mounting legal fees associated with defending the lawsuit, not covered under the town’s contract with Dickinson Wright.

During his tenure as interim town manager, Glassman spent large sums of town money on excessive entertainment expenses, mileage and the unbudgeted hiring of a publicist who has never sent so much as a press release to the local newspaper.

Glassman received a substantial raise while employed as interim town manager, despite Glassman agreeing to the terms and pay spelled out in the employment agreement he signed.

And, when Glassman did not live up to the terms of his contract to facilitate the hiring of a permanent town manager during the time frame allotted, he was awarded an extension to that contract.

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