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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPackets - Council Packets (1707)Stine, Michelle From: Sent: To: Cc: Subject: Attachments: Sincerely, Andrea Sirois Executive Assistant Town Manager, Mayor and Council. Town of Oro Valley Direct Line: 520-229-4714 Sirois, Andrea Wednesday, April 20, 2022 1:42 PM Standish, Michael; Stine, Michelle Cornelison, Chris; Hynd, Jessica FW: Incident At the last Council meeting there were comments about how the Town Council fails to show respect for their handicapped citizens.docx From: tucsonbass@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 1:39 PM To: Town Council <council@orovalleyaz.gov> Subject: Incident Dear Town Council et al, I was disappointed to discover (via e-mail from the Town Clerk after I had submitted a blue card electronically) that 'virtual presentation' at a Town Council Meeting was limited to only those items noted as "Public Hearing". While not so titled, the Call to Audience is probably the best example of a "Public Hearing" I am extremely limited to evening activities as my wife is 12 or so years into a Parkinson's Disease diagnosis and I have to prepare the evening meal and assist her in all of the other normal evening activities. So I am going to utilize this form of conveyance to communicate my April 20, 2022, Oro Valley Town Council, Call to the Audience. Please see the attached document. It is presented to you for your information and to insure that it becomes a matter of public record. I thank you for your time and service to our great community of Oro Valley. Don Cox Oro Valley Resident At a recent Council meeting there were comments about how members of the Town Council fail to show respect for the handicapped citizens of the community. I found the comments poignant and disturbingly accurate. As you will see from the following, disrespect for Oro Valley citizens by some members of the Town Council is not limited to our handicapped citizens. Around 10 AM on the morning of March, 25, 2022, a retired OVPD Sergeant and I were volunteering our time supporting the Drug Awareness Day program at Riverfront Park as we have done for 14 years. We were delivering water to other volunteers and picking up trash. I asked him to stop the cart so I could get a picture on my cell phone of Mayor Winfield, Vice Mayor Barrett and Councilperson Joyce Jones -Ivey who were huddled with one other person. I took two pictures. As we started to get back into our cart, the Mayor, Barrett and Jones Ivey bolted over to our location. Barrett and Jones -Ivey both asked, "Why were you taking pictures of us? We weren't doing anything wrong." Council person Ivey then gets approximately 4 inches away from me and starts yelling in my face. "You have no decency!" Why don't you get some religion, or words to that effect, and "stop spreading lies and bullshit about the Town." I then looked at the Mayor and asked him if he thought this was any way for an elected official to treat a citizen of the community. He just stood there. His lack of a response speaks volumes. Jones -Ivey then snatched a trash bag from the back of the cart and noticed some weight in it. "Is this your phone? Is this your phone?" she hollered. She then lifted the bag as high as she could and tossed it on the ground. I am left to conclude that she thought she was damaging or destroying my phone. I retrieved the bag and dumped the contents. It was a rock I had placed in the bag for weight so it wouldn't blow out of the cart. About that time, others who had observed this incident came over and told us this was not the time or place for this to occur. I couldn't have agreed more and my volunteer partner and I resumed our duties. I am still perplexed as to what triggered the incident in the first place. Why did they immediately use the term, "We weren't doing anything wrong"? Are these three individuals so paranoid that taking a picture can set them off? We were in a public park, attending a public event. However as I reflect on the general conduct of this majority of the current Town Council over the past 3 1/z years, it demonstrates disrespect for the residents of Oro Valley. They've conducted Executive Sessions of the Town Council in violation of Arizona law so they can keep us in the dark. They wastefully spent millions of our hard earned tax dollars. They have placed Oro Valley in more debt ($42,000,000+ interest) than any other Town Council. They deprive us the level of public safety that we were used to and deserve. And they deny our handicapped residents decent, reasonable access into the Community Center. That which is in their true nature has been on display for all to see. It isn't pretty. I don't believe any citizen of this community deserves to be treated in this manner by any elected official. And that includes those who disagree with the direction this community is heading.