Thomas: Reasoning for attempted referendum is disingenuous

The Reclaim Our Town (ROT) group is attempting to get the Four Peaks Plaza re-zoning request referred to voters.

A statement from Crystal Cavanaugh and Larry Meyers, representatives of ROT, was published in the Jan. 31 edition of The Fountain Hills Times Independent. The statement read, in part, “We believe a decision that will affect so many residents should not be made by only four votes on our Town Council.”

I believe ROT’s effort is not in any way due to “only four votes” deciding the re-zoning. I find their statement both disingenuous and a smokescreen for the real reason, which I believe is the council did not vote the way ROT wanted them to.

I also believe it would not have mattered whether four, five, six or seven votes had been in favor of the re-zoning; ROT would be trying to get the request referred in any case. If “only four votes” is really the issue, then ROT would have also been attempting to get the re-zoning referred to the voters if the council had voted 4-3 to deny the re-zoning.

Will the representatives of ROT publicly state, truthfully, that they would be taking the same action if Council had denied the re-zoning?

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