A look at the new personnel suggests that the Gilbert Town Council is poised to move right.
After all, victorious election challengers Eddie Cook, Jordan Ray and Victor Petersen are considered more conservative than Linda Abbott, Dave Crozier and Les Presmyk, the incumbents they are replacing.
However, Ray said he believes that the new Council, which will be seated on June 23, is a result of Gilbert residents voting their priorities, not an ideology.
“My opinion is moderate, conservative, whatever you want to call it — the town wants fiscal discipline, business growth, and public safety put first,” Ray said. “It doesn’t matter where you stand on the spectrum, those are the things they want done.”
Such issues as the controversial Zinke dairy land purchase and proposed sales-tax increase — which was rejected by voters last year — sparked great emotion during the campaign.
“Voters want to see fiscal responsibility,” Petersen said. “They see problems on a national level and here on the local level, though certainly not on the same scale. But we’ve got things to work on, and as the campaign wore on, the voters got educated on that and wanted things to improve. They voted for that direction.”
Cook, Ray and Petersen join two limited-government stalwarts, Jenn Daniels and mayor John Lewis, on the Council. The other two members — Ben Cooper, the only incumbent to survive last week’s election, and John Sentz — are more moderate.
Cooper, appointed to the Council last year, said that making Gilbert more business-friendly “has to be the dominant theme” going forward.
Although he was not around for the dairy land purchase vote that was a big source of the hot water for Abbott, Crozier and Presmyk, Cooper said he did not worry about getting caught up in the anti-incumbent wave.
“I tried not to think about it,” Cooper said. “I wanted to stay as clear as I could on my message about bringing economic development and business growth to the town while working on being fiscally responsible.”
The Council loses a lot of experience; the outgoing members had a combined 34 years on the dais. Its senior members will be Lewis, Daniels and Sentz, all elected in 2009.
The departing members had expertise in education (Abbott), engineering (Presmyk) and public safety (Crozier). The new members possess business backgrounds, with Petersen having an emphasis on homebuilding and Cook and Ray rooted in technology.
“I can’t speak for the other Council members as to what they’ll do when they’re there, but I’ve been very open that I’m a conservative,” Petersen said. “I put that right on my mailers: principled conservative leadership. And I want to do things that are consistent with those principles.”
Said Ray: “There may be some of us who are more conservative than others, but in the end, we’re going to do what’s best for the town, and make it sustainable for the future.”
• Contact writer: (480) 898-6301 or dzeiger@evtrib.com
ivotetoo posted at 12:05 pm on Mon, May 23, 2011.
Okay we already know the new people lie. Ray has no principal as he used smear tactics and distortions to get elected, can't even pass the bar- a want a be lawyer who has not even been able to pass the bar. Next, Eddie Crook, day after he wins he sues the Town for almost 10k for a fender bender, next we have Petersen, his family has sued the town over and over so his sleezy homebuilder Dad and company can ignore community standards. He lies first time out of the shoot- claiming to have run a positive campaign. This guy is from the movie "Dumb and Dumber" all hand picks of the Mayor and Jenn, who have accomplished nothing while on the Council.
Evalleyguy posted at 1:05 pm on Mon, May 23, 2011.
I have to agree with you ivotetoo..... It will be interesting to watch and see what this new council does.
The reason that the Mayor and Daniels haven't accomplished anything during their tenure on council is because they were always out voted what was the reason their supporters gave.
They never even tried to do anything in my recollection. I would have thought they should have continued to try to pas their agendas and be on record. So let's see what can be done other than taking care of the Boy and Girl Scouts in Gilbert.