When you have a weak candidate your only option is to attack your opponent. In a recent letter to the editor, Dickey supporters attacked members of council for working on several development projects in the town.

Mayor Linda Kavanagh appointed Dennis Brown and Cecil Yates to work on the downtown developments because Councilman Brown is a noted builder and Councilman Cecil Yates is an award-winning developer. That’s called sound judgment.

You always put your most experienced and knowledgeable people where their areas of expertise can be utilized. All the councilmembers have tremendous experience in various fields of business and operations; social and business media, photography and small business, human resources, finance, then construction and development.

Lucky for us, we have experienced people in positions to help the town navigate through these opportunities. Also lucky for us is that Cecil Yates is running for mayor. Not only does he have vast experience in construction and development, but also non-profits, grant application and administration, strategic management, finance, economics etc. In a recent article published by The Times, the Arizona Department of Real Estate Commissioner July Lowe just appointed Cecil Yates to the State Test Committee for his knowledge, ethics and integrity. He is considered a subject matter exert.

The bar has been raised extremely high for would-be candidates to consider a run for council and mayor. Lucky for us, Cecil Yates is above the bar. Please don’t listen to the mud-slinging by his opponent’s supporters. Vote Cecil Yates for mayor of Fountain Hills, for being an experienced businessperson, problem solver and industry leader in many other fields of operation.