Florence residents give their opinion in the Florence Reminder & Blade Tribune
TweetTwo interesting letters were published in today’s Florence Reminder & Blade Tribune. Here’s what they said:
Some folks want town to waste $300K a year
Editor,
I read the recent Mark Cowling article about the Town of Florence budget. Wow!
Hard to believe some folks are encouraging the Mayor and Council to continue wasting $300,000 a year on lawyer fees when town finances are in such desperate shape.
I say “desperate” because the Council is now looking at cutting services and raising taxes, desperate measures - laying off workers, raising sales and property taxes, raising taxes on food and construction and increasing fees-for-service and imposing new additional fees.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for efficient use of scarce taxpayers’ money. That’s why I’m so perplexed by the outrageous idea of continuing to waste $300,000 on legal fees fighting the State of Arizona and the Environmental Protection Agency over permits issued by them for a copper recovery pilot test facility.
Those decisions by the senior governments have made their decisions, the permits have been issued. It’s time to move on. It’s time for Mayor Walter and the Council to get back to their jobs: managing the Town and delivering services for residents.
Stop the spending. The lawyers up in Scottsdale will just have to find a way to manage without our money!
Paul Corso
Anthem/Florence Resident
Town looking at $1M deficit; why spend on a losing battle?
An Open Letter to the Florence Town Council
Mayor, Councilmembers, this is your wake-up call. You’ve been entrusted by the voters with the critical responsibility to lead this Town. And yet, on the verge of a massive budget nightmare, you’re pretending all is well.
This Town is staring at a whopping one million dollar deficit. And yet, when I look up at you at council meetings, all I see are deer, staring in the headlights. Where’s the urgency???
It certainly wasn’t here a few weeks back when some members of this Council suggested they were elected with the sole purpose of defeating one of the most promising job and revenue-creating businesses we’ve ever seen, Florence Copper.
In fact, strangely, some seemed quite impressed with themselves to make that statement. As if killing one of the best economic development projects this Town has seen in decades was something to be proud of.
Well, I submit, that not one single voter in Florence voted for you to waste precious taxpayer dollars.
And yet, that’s exactly what you’re doing. Shame on you.
This Council has spent 1 to 2 million dollars fighting a losing battle to kill a project that has been scientifically designed and engineered to meet or exceed all health and safety standards, laws and regulations.
That’s real money that could have been spent on police, fire, roads, youth activities, parks, services for elderly, downtown revitalization, sanitation. If you hadn’t frittered that money away, you would have the funds, today, to cover the projected shortfall for the coming fiscal year.
Sadly, you are oh for six. You’ve filed 6 frivolous lawsuits and haven’t won a single one. Continuing to throw money at these lawsuits is like a gambler that continues to place a bet on the same losing number time and time again. But at least the gambler might actually win something, eventually. You, on the other hand, win nothing, ever.
And, as if that’s not bad enough, you’re wasting tax dollars fighting regulatory agencies when there are 3 extremely wealthy corporations (Pulte, George Johnson and Southwest Value Partners) that could fund the frivolous lawsuits all by themselves, saving the Town millions.
Now, which one of you will do the right thing and stand up to people like Barb Manning who peddle hysteria? I urge you. Please fix the budget, and stop wasting taxpayer dollars on frivolous lawsuits.
Sincerely,
Keith Kinney, Florence Resident
On June 5th and June 19th, Florence residents are invited to come to Town Hall and attend a public meeting at which the Town Council will continue the budget planning process. They are interested in hearing any thoughts or ideas people may have regarding the future spending of your tax dollars.
It will be an important discussion. We are attending the meeting, and we’ve heard that several others are coming as well. And you should come along too.
Your presence will help encourage council to budget wisely.
We hope to see you there!
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