Town Council

Town Council – 1/17/2013 – Liquor – Zoning – Unions – Budget

Anita Christy

LIQUOR LICENSES

New Councilmember Jared Taylor stated that he will be voting against approval of almost all liquor licenses presented to the Council. He advised that he is not in favor of prohibition, but rather temperance. He campaigned on behalf of both business and families, and he cited statistics relating to the DUI arrests in Gilbert in addition to the fact that someone is killed every 53 minutes at the hands of a drunk driver.

This isn’t the only cost. There is a cost to families when a family member drinks to excess. Alcohol plays a significant role in domestic violence and divorce.

Many innocent children die every year at the hands of drunk drivers. They also die due to domestic violence. Those must be “acceptable” deaths, because Obama hasn’t uttered a word, and the malpracticing media doesn’t keep a body count.

It is of no interest to reporter Parker Leavitt, for example, who has been generous in slamming Councilmember Petersen and now Councilmember Taylor for their "extremist" views, such as standing up for the U.S. Constitution and for private property rights. Don’t ALL councilmembers, including the Mayor, take the same Oath to protect and defend the Constitution? Some of those councilmembers get downright "testy" at the mention of the word "Founders."

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My Turn – AZ Central – Jared Taylor

Anita Christy

28 September 2012

In a few weeks, Gilbert voters will select another member of the Gilbert Town Council. It’s important that we havea fresh voice that will protect the rights of Gilbert families and businesses. There are a number of reasons I would like to serve as your next Council Member.

Jared Taylor is Committed to Gilbert’s Heritage and Success

I’m committed to the heritage and success of this community. My grandfather taught school at the old Gilbert Elementary School and worked on John Allen’s dairy. After I was married, my wife and I moved to Gilbert in 1996. With our three daughters, we enjoy the beautiful parks, schools, and so many good friends.

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It’s Your Turn! Please Vote for Jared Taylor for Gilbert Town Council!

Anita Christy

It’s Your Turn, by Jared Taylor

Over the past months, I’ve enjoyed visiting with hundreds of Gilbert voters and communicating my vision for Gilbert. With less than a week left in the campaign, it is now in your hands to decide.

This race has two different visions for Gilbert. Do we want big government or limited government? Do we want higher taxes or lower taxes? Do we want more or less economic freedom for our small businesses?

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It’s Only a Cup of Coffee

Anita Christy

by Jared Taylor

This article was originally published in April 2010.  It is being republished in light of the Budget issues being discussed in the Gilbert Public Schools.  Once again, the Liberals are demanding more from the private sector.

A few weeks ago, I interviewed over 20 people in Mesa and Gilbert regarding an Executive Assistant position we are looking to fill at work. I was surprised that nearly all of the individuals living in Gilbert needed to get back into the workforce as either their spouse had been laid off or the household income had dried up. Cash was in short supply.

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Jared Taylor: Gilbert missed opportunity to continue course of fiscal responsibility with adoption of $466 million FY14 Budget

Anita Christy

On June 3, 2013, the Gilbert Town Council voted 5-2 in favor of a $466 million budget for FY2014.   Council Member Jared Taylor voted "NO," which earned him a "PROPER VOTE" rating from Captain Rick Atridim on Atridim News Journal’s Gilbert Council Scorecard.   

Captain Rick invited Jared to present guest commentary for the ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL concerning his vote on this important fiscal event.  Here is a quote from Council Member Taylor.  Please read all of his remarks on Rick’s Guest Commentary:  

"The FY14 budget’s rate of growth outpaces inflation and puts us on a path to run a deficit in 1-2 years. Any uptick in sales tax revenues will mask this for a few years, but when another downturn hits, we’ll be forced to make a decision to raise taxes or make drastic cuts again. The recommendation to follow the rate of inflation more effectively controls our spending and is more aligned with other costs hard-working taxpayers are facing day-to-day."

NOTE:  Council Member Victor Petersen also voted NO.

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Fines & Jail Time for Keeping Chickens in Gilbert

Anita Christy

Let’s say you keep 5 chickens in your backyard in Gilbert.  Your children consider them pets and have named them Honey-Bun, Suzie, Blondie, Wanda, and Pumpkin.  You consider them a source of nutritious food.  Let’s say you are unfortunate enough to live in a subdivision that is zoned SF-6 or SF-7.  Other people in other parts of Gilbert are allowed to have chickens.   They have bigger lots.   But your lot is only 6,000 or 7,000 square feet.  Your chickens are illegal.

Before I go into the details of this story (having changed the names of the chickens to protect their privacy), it’s important for you to know that until 2005 when Gilbert’s Land Development was "updated," you could have legally kept your five little chickens.

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STOP these Free Market Killing ICC Building Codes in Gilbert – TOWN COUNCIL VOTES THURSDAY, 11/7/2013!

Anita Christy

Please see Gordon Ray’s email below. Thanks to the high level of research and persistence of Gordon’s team of dedicated citizens, the Gilbert Town Council is looking at the ICC 2012 Building Codes like they never have in the past.  So far the Council has hit the pause button. 

Tomorrow they vote.  PLEASE send an email and/or attend this meeting to speak out against adoption of these codes.  This email address will reach Mayor John Lewis and all Council members:  councilmembers@gilbertaz.gov.   Town Hall, 50 E. Civic Center Drive, Gilbert, AZ 85296.

How can any of these codes honestly be about safety issues?  Is your house still standing?  Is every house in Gilbert still standing?  What about all the office buildings, grocery stores, and government buildings?  All were built with tons of previous codes.  None were built with these proposed 2012 Codes!   None of the homes and buildings built without these codes have presented any hazards.  Children haven’t gotten shocked from sticking screwdrivers, paperclips, or anything else into the outlets. 

Please tell the Council:  Even if a code is an improvement, that improvement shouldn’t be made into a law.  The improvement should be a choice between the builder and the person paying for the construction.  Just because some private entities wrote those codes, forcing them on the citizenry is NOT supporting the Free market.  Leave the Free market to compete on its own, without more onerous regulations. 

Enough of Government Regulations at all levels!   All of these monsters got their start at the local level.  Kill the monster while it’s young, before it turns into the Rottweiler that runs your household.    

From: Gordon Ray mailto:gordonray49@gmail.com

ATTENTION!

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Victor Petersen: Gilbert’s budget represents a decrease in government efficiency by spending more tax dollars per citizen … “Where spending leads, taxes must follow”

Anita Christy

On June 3, 2013, the Gilbert Town Council voted 5-2 in favor of a $466 million budget for FY2014.  Council Member Victor Petersen voted "NO," which earned him a "PROPER VOTE" rating from Captain Rick Atridim on Atridim News Journal’s Gilbert Council Scorecard.  

Captain Rick invited Victor to present guest commentary for the ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL concerning his vote on this important fiscal event.  Here is a quote from Council Member Victor Petersen.  Please read all of his remarks on Rick’s Guest Commentary:  

 

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Gilbert Town Council Member Jared Taylor’s Opinion about adopting the 2012 ICC Building Codes

Anita Christy

This afternoon, July 30, 2013, the Town Council meets in a Study Session at 4 pm to talk about the 2012 ICC building codes.  Click here for more information.   Your attendance in support of the citizens of Gilbert is appreciated.  

A few weeks ago, I asked each Council member for his/her opinion on who has the burden of proof for adopting codes into law? Should individual citizens be expected to prove that each of hundreds of codes should NOT be made law?  Or should Town employees be required to prove why they SHOULD be made law?  

In response to that question, Council Member Jared Taylor responded by copying me on an email he sent on July 9 to Patrick Banger, Gilbert’s Town Manager:

Hi Patrick,

As far as I can tell, the purpose of having building codes is to solve problems.  For example, smoke detectors save lives so we mandate them.  There is clear data to show this.

As I’ve listened to Kyle’s team, I’m not sure they are focused on solving problems in our community, but more on passing along the recommendations from national/international bodies.

I realize a few state-mandated items were withdrawn, but that didn’t come from our building community.  Don’t get me wrong, the IBC’s have some positive things in them.

As you probably know, the 2012 codes will add hundreds of new regulations on our builders.  Many builders will profit by the additional work and just pass the cost on to our citizens.  The citizens will eventually carry the cost of all the expensive fees, inspections, and hours it takes to design, review, and inspect to the new and existing regulations.  This will cost Gilbert families millions of additional dollars very quickly.  I wonder about the real value here and can’t support something that isn’t empirically validated to solve problems.

As a result, it seems reasonable that I get hard empirical justification on every new regulation that is being recommended.  I would like to see the statistics of how many injuries, deaths, or other harms the lack each regulation has caused in Gilbert and how this new regulation is proven to address the issue.   

If we are not solving actual problems, we are simply creating a huge amount of waste for our citizens in government jobs, fees, reviews, inspections, etc.  This is a simple ROI exercise that should have been part of the original process.

I would like to have someone on your team provide me this analysis. I’m OK to receive it in a spreadsheet. I know this may seem like a tall order, but given the massive imposition on our community these hundreds of new regulations will place, it’s really not that much.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Jared

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They’re Baaaaaaack! Gilbert’s Building, Energy and Green Codes, that is

Anita Christy

The following FREE MARKET KILLING CODES are currently in effect, thanks to Mayor John Lewis, Vice Mayor Ben Cooper, and Council Members Jenn Daniels and Jordan Ray:  

2012 International Building Code 

2012 International Residential Code 

2012 International Mechanical Code 

2012 International Plumbing Code 

2012 International Fuel Gas Code 

2006 International Energy Conservation Code 

2012 International Fire Code 

2011 National Electrical Code  

Building and Construction Regulations Code of the Town of Gilbert, Arizona – 2013 Edition

This Thursday night, 1/30/2014, 4 Gilbert Council Members, including Mayor John Lewis, claiming to  "represent" Gilbert families, will very likely, once again, turn deaf, dumb, and blind to them and add to the above unnecessary codes.  The new addition is proposed:  The Leftist inspired Energy and Green Codes!  Unless Gilbert staff members can present valid arguments to support that these codes are necessary to health and safety, they should all be voluntary, not LAW.  Please send an email to Mayor Lewis and all Council Members and ask them to please vote NO to these Energy and Green Codes.  They should be voluntary:  Councilmembers@GilbertAZ.gov.  

A public records request made by Gordon Ray revealed that 57 people had emailed Mayor John Lewis and all Council Members to NOT adopt the 2012 unnecessary codes (that they adopted anyway).  They should have remained voluntary.  Only 4 people emailed to adopt them, including a Washington lobbyist and a representative from SRP.  Yet, the 2012 codes were adopted.

Three Council Members have been opposed to unnecessary codes.  These Council Members include:  Victor Petersen, Jared Taylor, and Eddie Cook.   It will be unfortunate if Mayor John Lewis and the other three Council Members continue to listen to and obey the direction of staff (aka so-called "experts") who want to grow their bureaucracy and inflict more regulations on Gilbert families.  Unless you can break through their resistance,Mayor Lewis and three council members will be mezmerized by the Planners, Building Examiners, Inspectors, and Code Enforcers.

Mayor Lewis and the other three Council Members also listen to organizations such as the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Alliance.  Some of their members stand to make big bucks because their products will be forced on Gilbert families. Their products will have to be purchased by law.  (Code = Regulation = Law.)

Welcome to Gilbert’s Administrative State!    Here are the Council members who have demonstrated by their votes that they don’t care about you and your goofy rants about Liberty, Freedom, Property Rights, and the Free Market.  To them, you are the unheard, unlamented, unwanted. They get really tired of hearing about "the Founders."   (Oh, but they will strut and preen at the next "celebration" of Constitution Week USA.  Just watch.)    

Mayor John Lewis
Vice Mayor Ben Cooper
Council Member Jenn Daniels
Council Member Jordan Ray

Do you think I’m being "harsh" toward these wonderfully "nice" people? Consider how they have been treating their constituents. 

The fight against the adoption of unnecessary building codes has been going on for a YEAR!  A private business that lobbies for new codes that will gain financially by the codes has a conflict of interest .Power. Control, and Money is what this is all about, Not Safety and Energy/Green.  

Rusdon and Gordon Ray haven’t received a single penny for the work they have done to stop these code adoptions.  In fact, everything they have done to fight these swarms of unnecessary codes has cost them and their families time, effort, and money.  Do you think the Town Council is weary of this issue?  How do you think Gordon and Rusdon feel?  Not to mention the many families of the tradesmen and builders who have been fighting along with them. 

Please inform Gilbert voters how these elected officials "stood up for them" by showing them the voting record of these people who have consistently voted FOR these free market killing codes. 

Please email Mayor Lewis and all Council Members asking them to PLEASE VOTE NO to adopting the Green and Energy Codes.  They should be voluntary.  Councilmembers@GilbertAZ.gov

See also (for the last YEAR, and this isn’t even a complete list):

 

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