Is Linda Kavanagh propping up Cecil Yates? You bet she is. Funny how those things happen in an election year.

The mayor’s premature anointing of Yates as the town’s future mayor should make us nervous. First, she doesn’t get the chance to pick the mayor, but she’s trying.

Second, odd how the very things that Ginny Dickey’s write-in campaign less than two years ago pointed out the mayor was not doing, the mayor is now doing. This includes joint meetings with other town entities; representation and participation in regional events; addressing town infrastructure needs and touting a great relationship with the town’s contracted trash hauler as hers. You see, these are all smokescreens to promote Yates’ candidacy so he can claim he’s done it or he’s supported it. He’s just riding her coattails.

Although Yates can continue to “run for Mayor” as a councilperson, the community suffers because of it. Not only does he use the dais to conduct his campaign, he’s ensuring that the current mayor/council can choose who they want to fill his seat.

How? Come May, he must resign, but by then it’s too late for anyone else to run for the remaining two years of his term, expiring December 2020. If he resigns sooner, then the Council chooses a temporary replacement until August 2018 when the remaining years of the term would be filled by a candidate chosen by voters.

Don’t be fooled by the mayor’s apparent change of heart when it comes to leading in Fountain Hills. She’s trying to give us more of the “same-old, same-old” with Cecil Yates. I’m not biting. I’m voting for Ginny Dickey. She understands what residents want; she listens. That’s more than I can say about some current representation.