Community Issues

Also sworn in during the ceremony as councilmen were incumbent Carolyn Guthrie and newly elected William Moore.

Following Bennett's resignation August 27, 2008, Charles [Chuck] Busby assumed the position of 'Interim Mayor' until his death 4 November 2008. Then, the position open, the Citizen's Coalition pressed for the election of a new Mayor.

While the council had been less than receptive to this idea, Walter Akin stepped into the Mayoral position, with Coalition organizers still indicating they had enough signatures to press -- effectively -- for an election.

Hal Davidson, acting Vice Mayor, had indicated a formal election will cost the town in excess of $ 10,000.00, but a municipal attorney cited $ 4,000.00 as a 'more realistic' figure.

The discrepancy -- and the question as to whether or not the Town Council would agree to allow their constituents to hold a formal election had yet to be addressed as Town Manager/ Town Attorney Daniel G. Field was unavailable for comment, and Walter Akin stepped up to the position of 'acting' Mayor amidst public outcry over the decision.

Although Field had openly stated he believes there should be an election, the questions he had raised indicate there could be obstacles to allowing the election process to proceed. But at that time, these 'obstacles' were yet to be clearly defined by any Town official, including Field.

The final position of both Field and Akin was that no election would take place until March of 2010.

"I am only going to have the position until March of 2010," Akin stated. "I could have kept the position for four years."

"We don't want to wait," stated Dean Taylor, Citizen's Coalition Chairman. "We need to get people into office that will be concerned with Quartzsite - with the welfare of Quartzsite's citizens. We have to go forward with our demands for an election now."

Former Mayor C. Richard Oldham spoke to the Council at a meeting in November, stating that during his tenure in office, it was specifically stated that there would be elections for the position of Mayor. Oldham suggested that an election be held and indicated the council was using an appointment clause inten-
ded to be used only with vacant council seats.

"It's supposed to a directly elected Mayor by the people of Quartzsite.

The lack of availability of the town's officials is -- according to Citizen's Coalition representatives -- commonplace.

"We are virtually unrepresented," stated Dean Taylor, Coalition chairman. "We cannot get these people on the phone, they won't answer in public. We bring concerns to them and they shut us down three minutes into our presentations without a response. Then we can't address them again until the next meeting, when we approach them publicly only to be treated the same way again."

Other Coalition members reiterated Taylor's concern about the handling of issues of concern to Quartzsite's citizenry.

"We need a competent Mayor," stated one businessman, who asked not to be identified. "We have all heard they plan not to allow an election until 2010, and we all feel -- in the wake of the current economic issues throughout the country -- that we just can't afford to wait until 2010 to get competent leadership into Quartzsite.

Coalition members cited concern for the lack of growth happening in Quartzsite and the 'forcing out' of business throughout the community.

"Everywhere you look businesses are coming up for sale here," the businessman continued. "Look at how many have come and made deals, only to suddenly decide on a location elsewhere, citing concerns that they will encounter trouble with the 'elected officials' in Quartzsite. It's as though we're held hostage by the unbelievable level of incompetence that is ruining our ability to do business. We need to replace the existing council."

In years past, the Town of Quartzsite's by-laws had stipulated that the position of Mayor would be elected by the townspeople.

This by-law cannot be changed by the sitting council. Only a referendum -- voted on by the people -- could alter the existing by-law. Any attempt to do otherwise is blatantly illegal.

Interestingly, the topic foremost among those critical of the Town government currently governing Quartzsite is the charge that the council is unreceptive to the concerns [and the accusations] of the people, avoiding questions and consistently failing to return calls and inquiries pertinent to matters concerning Quartzsite's citizens.

Further, the council has re-implemented a 'stopwatch' approach to open meetings by effectively preventing citizens from speaking openly by using a stopwatch and gavel to interrupt after allowing the person to speak for the maximum period of three minutes.

When Bennett took office, he promptly discontinued the practice, noting that the citizenry of the town had a right to voice their opinions at open meetings of the council.

At the Wednesday evening meeting, Citizen's Coalition representative Doug Guilford questioned the town's handling of zoning issues following an incident in which he, a Century 21 real estate agent, had had a problem with zoning after purchasing a property in Quartzsite he intended for food vending.

Guilford charged that the town arbitrarily defined zoning without proper research, causing issues that took weeks to resolve.

"I did my due diligence," Guilford stated. "This property was zoned C2. However, after purchasing the property, I was informed by the zoning official that it was not properly zoned for my project."

Guilford addressed the council with a prepared statement and asked the council to consider reviewing the town's zoning procedures to provide a fair and unbiased basis on which to base zoning. In the midst of his statement, he was told to stop speaking. Another Coalition member finished his statement for him.

Dean Taylor, the Coalition's chairman, was also interrupted by the three-minute limit, also requiring a second person, Gerald Wilcox, to finish a written statement he'd begun reading, which cited problems with communications -- specifically following the death of acting Mayor Charles [Chuck] Busby November 4, 2008.

The Citizen's Coalition statement cited several instances of poor or nonexistent communications with the town including the mishandling of the death of acting Mayor Busby.

Questions concerning Busby's death went unanswered, some were openly antagonistic. One press representative reported she had been told by a town official, "We have nothing to say: Nothing. Nothing. Nothing."

The Coalition statement was requesting the appointment of an official 'Information Officer' to be properly trained so that future incidents might be treated in a more timely and professional way.

Charles [Chuck] Busby did not take steps to re-implement the three minute time limit during the time he was in office. It is unclear under what circumstances this oft-challenged practice was re-enacted by the town council -- but the open discussions concerning the ramifications of these and other council actions have been cited as the reasoning behind the formation of a Citizen's Coalition to represent the concerns, ideas and opinions of a public body that openly claims they are not being properly represented by the officials currently holding office in the town.

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